MSD has agreed to pay up to $610 million to acquire Caraway Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech focusing on neurodegenerative disorders and rare diseases.

MSD已同意支付高达6.1亿美元购买Caraway Therapeutics，这是一家专注于神经退行性疾病和罕见疾病的马萨诸塞州剑桥市生物技术公司。

The big pharma, known as Merck & Co in the US and Canada, will make an undisclosed upfront payment to get control of Caraway this quarter, with the remainder of the total consideration forthcoming if Caraway’s R&D pipeline delivers as anticipated. It has been a shareholder in the biotech since 2018 through its venture capital arm MRL Ventures Fund..

在美国和加拿大被称为默克公司的大型制药公司将获得未披露的预付款，以控制本季度的Caraway，如果Caraway的研发管道按预期交付，则将考虑剩余的全部考虑。自2018年以来，它一直通过其风险投资集团MRL Ventures Fund担任生物技术公司的股东。。

The biotech is focusing on precision, small-molecule medicines that work via a process known as cellular clearance by activating the lysosome, sometimes referred to as the cell’s recycling and disposal organelle. It has a range of preclinical-stage projects that aim to harness lysosomes’ ability to clear toxic materials and defective cellular components..

该生物技术专注于精密的小分子药物，这些药物通过激活溶酶体（有时称为细胞的回收和处置细胞器）通过称为细胞清除的过程起作用。它有一系列临床前阶段项目，旨在利用溶酶体清除有毒物质和有缺陷的细胞成分的能力。。

Mutations that impair cellular clearance pathways are associated with multiple neurodegenerative and rare diseases, according to the company.

据该公司称，损害细胞清除途径的突变与多种神经退行性疾病和罕见疾病有关。

There’s not much information available on Caraway’s pipeline, which is headed by candidates for Parkinson’s disease associated with mutations in the GBA gene and another non-neurological rare disease that target the TRPML1 ion channel.

Caraway的管道上没有太多可用的信息，该管道由与GBA基因突变相关的帕金森病候选人和另一种针对TRPML1离子通道的非神经系统罕见疾病领导。

It also has slightly earlier-stage programmes in Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND).

它在帕金森氏症和肌萎缩性侧索硬化症（ALS）（也称为运动神经元疾病（MND））中也有稍早的阶段计划。

In 2020, the biotech was awarded a research grant from The Michael J Fox Foundation to investigate the role of TMEM175, a lysosomal potassium ion channel genetically implicated in Parkinson’s. Decreased TMEM175 function reduces lysosomal efficiency in neuronal cells, and is strongly associated with the disease.

2020年，该生物技术公司获得Michael J Fox基金会的研究资助，用于研究TMEM175的作用，TMEM175是一种与帕金森病有关的溶酶体钾离子通道。TMEM175功能降低会降低神经元细胞中的溶酶体效率，并且与疾病密切相关。

The following year AbbVie paid $17 million upfront for an option on that programme, with up to $267 million in additional milestone payments..

第二年，AbbVie提前支付1700万美元用于该计划的一项选择，额外的里程碑付款高达2.67亿美元。。

“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,” said George Addona, head of discovery, preclinical development and translational medicine at Merck Research Laboratories.

默克研究实验室发现，临床前开发和转化医学负责人乔治·阿多纳（George Addona）说：“Caraway的多学科方法在评估溶酶体功能调节的新机制以及治疗进行性神经退行性疾病方面取得了重要进展。

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“We look forward to applying our expertise to build upon this work with the goal of developing much-needed disease-modifying therapies for these conditions.”

“我们期待运用我们的专业知识在这项工作的基础上建立起来，目标是为这些疾病开发急需的疾病缓解疗法。”

Other companies operating in this area include Biogen, which licensed a lysosome-targeting drug from Alectos in $722.5 million deal last year, as well as Takeda/AcuraStem and Verge Genomics with inhibitors of PIKfyve, an enzyme thought to be involved in an underlying disease process in ALS linked to the function of lysosomes..

在该领域运营的其他公司包括Biogen，该公司去年从Alectos获得了7.225亿美元交易的溶酶体靶向药物许可，以及Takeda/AcuraStem和Verge Genomics与PIKfyve抑制剂，PIKfyve是一种被认为参与潜在疾病过程的酶。在ALS中与溶酶体的功能有关。。

The Caraway deal comes against a backdrop of increased M&A activity at MSD, which bought Prometheus Biosciences earlier this year for $10.8 billion, and in the last couple of years also snapped up Imago Biosciences for $1.35 billion and Acceleron Pharma for $11.5 billion. It was also linked to a possible takeover of Seagen before Pfizer agreed its $43 billion deal for the company..

Caraway交易的背景是MSD的M＆a活动增加，MSD今年早些时候以108亿美元收购了Prometheus Biosciences，过去几年也以13.5亿美元收购了Imago Biosciences，以115亿美元收购了Acceleron Pharma。在辉瑞同意其430亿美元的公司交易之前，它还与可能收购Seagen有关。。