Merck & Co. to buy neurodegenerative disease drug developer Caraway

21 Nov 2023
firstwordpharma.com
Acquisition
Merck & Co. agreed to acquire Caraway Therapeutics for up to $610 million, bolstering its pipeline with a number of preclinical small-molecule compounds mainly focused on Parkinson’s disease. The deal announced Tuesday includes an undisclosed upfront payment as well as milestones linked to certain experimental drugs.
“Caraway’s multidisciplinary approach has yielded important progress in evaluating novel mechanisms of modulation of lysosomal function with potential for the treatment of progressive neurodegenerative diseases,” remarked George Addona, senior vice president for discovery, preclinical development and translational medicine at Merck Research Laboratories.
Caraway’s pipeline includes two compounds targeting the TRPML1 ion channel, with one focused on GBA-Parkinson’s disease and the other on an undisclosed non-CNS rare disease. The other two preclinical assets targeting TMEM175 and ATP13A2 are under development for Parkinson’s disease, with the former also being investigated for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
In 2021, AbbVie paid $17 million upfront for an option on Caraway’s programme targeting the lysosomal potassium ion channel TMEM175. Meanwhile, Merck has been a shareholder of Caraway since 2018 through its MRL Ventures Fund.
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