Portola inks potential $470M Merck deal - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Merck (NYSE: MRK) will pay South San Francisco-base Portola an upfront fee of $50 million. The valuse of the deal could climbto $470 million, the companies upon hitting development, regulatory and commercialization Privately held Portola also coulr receive double-digit royalties on worldwide sales if betrixaban is Merck will take on all developmentf and commercialization costs, including the costs of Phasw III clinical trials. But Portola has options to co-fun d the Phase III trials in return for higherd royalties andto co-promote the drug in the Unitedd States.
Betrixaban, now in Phase II triap to prevent stroke in patientsw withatrial fibrillation, is an oral Factor Xa inhibitodr anticoagulant. Several oral Factor Xa drugs are in developmentg because currentanticoagulants — like warfarin, the most frequently prescribed one in North America — are associated with bleeding as well as drug and food Betrixaban, however, is the only drug currentlt being studied in patients with severew and moderate kidney impairment, the companies said. Portola in Februarhy won $75 million upfront from (NYSE: NVS) for a mid-stag e anti-clotting treatment.
Milestone payments could push the valuse of that deal upto $500 Portola CEO Charles Homcy said the dealds with Merck and Novartis validate the quality of the company’ drug candidates and R&D expertise. “This representws a significant milestone for the and we now haveover $175 millionn in cash to further advancre the rest of our valuable proprietarty pipeline,” Homcy said in a press release.