GM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that the company has entered into an amended and restated agreement with Merck to extend their ongoing collaboration through March 2024 but with a narrower scope. NGM disclosed in March 2021 that NGM and Merck were negotiating modifications of the agreement to address changing priorities. Going forward, the collaboration will focus primarily on the development of novel medicines for unmet patient needs in retinal and CVM diseases, including heart failure. Merck retains an option to license those programs being advanced under the amended collaboration. NGM gains worldwide rights to its disclosed oncology portfolio, as well as all preclinical, and current and future research, assets falling outside of the amended collaboration’s narrower scope, subject to a low single-digit net sales royalty to Merck.

“We are pleased to continue to collaborate with Merck to address retinal and CVM diseases that represent significant unmet needs while moving forward with greater independence and flexibility to advance our broader portfolio of assets,” said Dr. David J. Woodhouse, Chief Executive Officer at NGM. “We now have a portfolio of four disclosed wholly owned programs as well as multiple undisclosed preclinical and research programs, which puts us in a fundamentally different position. Moreover, our in-house discovery engine can now work on programs solely for NGM’s benefit outside of Merck’s targeted areas. Bolstered by a strong balance sheet with runway expected to take us into the first half of 2024, we are well-positioned to advance multiple value-driving opportunities for stockholders.”

“Key to the success of our collaboration with NGM has been our companies’ unwavering commitment to scientific excellence,” said Dr. Dean Li, President, Merck Research Laboratories. “Our continued investment in NGM is due to the concentrated and reproducible effort of NGM scientists to select a problem, dissect and understand the molecular basis for it, and think carefully about how to address it. This amended agreement now enables the application of NGM’s biology-centric discovery approach to further explore new opportunities in important therapeutics areas such as retinal and cardiometabolic diseases.”

Merck will provide approximately $120 million in research and development funding to NGM through March 2024.