Absci Shares Leap Premarket on Collaboration With Merck

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Absci Corp. surged more than 50% in premarket trading Friday after the drug and target discovery company said it formed a research collaboration potentially worth more than $600 million with Merck & Co. that will use Absci's AI-powered Integrated Drug Creation platform.

Absci, based in Vancouver, Wash., said it will use its Bionic Protein non-standard amino acid technology to produce enzymes tailored to Merck's biomanufacturing applications in exchange for an upfront payment and certain other milestone payments.

The company said Kenilworth, N.J., drugmaker Merck has the option to nominate up to three targets and enter into a drug discovery collaboration agreement, which would then make Absci be eligible to receive up to $610 million in upfront fees and milestone payments for all three targets, along with research funding and tiered royalties on sales.

Absci shares, which closed Thursday at $6.14, were recently up 51.5% to $9.30 in premarket trading.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2022 06:24 ET (11:24 GMT)

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