Vancouver, BC-based Alectos Therapeutics said today it has formed a research collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Merck to identify new drugs that block an enzyme thought to be related to Alzheimer’s disease. Alectos stands to gain as much as $289 million under the partnership, through a combination of upfront cash and development milestones, as well as royalties on future product sales, if there are any. Alectos is a spinoff from the lab of David Vocadlo at Simon Fraser University, and is led by CEO Ernest McEachern, a veteran of AnorMed.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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