Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) has entered into a second agreement with Merck & Co. Inc in respect of its proprietary human antibody technologies. Under the terms of this second agreement, CAT has granted Merck a licence to its human phage antibody libraries. The libraries will be used by Merck to support and promote discovery research and development across a broad range of therapeutic areas.

CAT will receive an upfront licence fee including a technology access fee upon transfer of the libraries to the designated Merck sites. In addition CAT may receive future option, milestone and royalty payments from Merck. Merck receives option rights to develop therapeutic and diagnostic products on an exclusive basis.

CAT and Merck entered into a separate collaboration and licence agreement a year ago for the research and development of products specific for a protein involved in disease mediated by HIV.

Peter Chambré, Chief Executive Officer of CAT, commented “We have been greatly encouraged by the progress of our product collaboration with Merck to date, so the announcement of this second broad agreement just one year later is immensely exciting. While our first agreement had represented CAT's first product alliance in infectious disease, the prospect of our world-leading antibody technologies now being applied more widely within the Merck organisation is greatly welcomed by CAT. We are delighted with the enthusiasm being shown by well-established pharmaceutical companies such as Merck for the potential of CAT's technology.”