Merck & Co – known as MSD outside the US and Canada – and Ginkgo Bioworks have announced a new biologic manufacturing collaboration worth up to $490m.

The partnership will utilise Ginkgo’s capabilities in cell engineering, ultra high-throughput multiplexed screening, protein characterisation and process optimisation to improve production efficiency and increase yields.

In exchange, Ginkgo could receive up to $490m in upfront research fees, research milestone fees, option licence payments and commercial milestone payments.

Jason Kelly, chief executive officer and co-founder of Ginkgo, said: "We're thrilled to leverage our platform to improve the production of biologics in collaboration with Merck.

"In particular, we will utilise some of our unique capabilities, such as automated protocols to do predictive ultra high-throughput multiplexed screening, product characterisation and process optimisation.”

Also commenting on the collaboration, Dr Michael Kress, senior vice president, development sciences and clinical supply at Merck Research Laboratories, said: "At Merck we are always seeking new and innovative ways to optimise process efficiency while maintaining product integrity. We are pleased to build upon our relationship with the Ginkgo Bioworks team.”

The deal marks the second collaboration between Merck and Ginkgo, after the companies signed a deal worth up to $144m in October last year to improve Merck's active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.

The contract includes up to four enzyme biocatalysts, which can decrease production costs by reducing costly synthesis and purification steps.

“Ginkgo’s fungal strains present a major opportunity for improving biocatalysis. E. coli is currently the mainstay host for expressing enzymes, but a large number of enzymes will not express properly in E. coli, and those that do express in E. coli may have better homologs that only express in fungal strains,” explained Behzad Mahdavi, the company’s senior vice president of biopharma manufacturing and life sciences tools, at the time of the announcement.

Ginkgo also secured a deal with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency just under a month ago. The four-year contract, which is worth up to $18m, will see the company research the manufacturing of complex therapeutic proteins.

Prior to this, Ginkgo signed a multi-year collaboration with Novo Nordisk to “unlock the potential” of expression systems that could accelerate and enhance the discovery and development of Novo's biological medicines.

Reference：
https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/merck_and_ginkgo_bioworks_enter_biologic_manufacturing_collaboration_worth_up_to_$490m_1496009