Advinus Therapeutics, the Tata promoted company engaged in Pharmaceutical R&D, has achieved two more milestones. One each in the two programmes, under the drug discovery and development collaboration between Advinus Therapeutics (P) Ltd. and Merck & Co., Inc. The second milestone for one of the programmes was achieved within four months of achieving the first milestone in November 2007.

The companies have been working together since November 2006 to develop clinically validated drug candidates in metabolic diseases, with Merck retaining the right to advance the most promising of these candidates into late-stage clinical trials. Under the terms of the agreement, Advinus will receive milestone payments upon meeting agreed upon criteria at various stages of discovery and development. Advinus could potentially receive US$ 74.5 million per target and is also eligible for royalties on the sales of any products that result from the collaboration.

Rajiv Malik, senior vice president and head of operations said, "The Advinus team is very proud of the achievement. Together, we have met or surpassed all the expectations that were set out between the partners at the onset of the collaboration. He further added that "The consecutive successes achieved in this collaboration, which is only a little over a year young, validate our ability to do innovative drug discovery on novel targets".

Advinus is an emerging company with deep capabilities in drug discovery and contract research services for pharma and agrochem companies. It is backed by the Tata group, India's largest and most respected business house, and led by executives with extensive international experience in pharma R&D.