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Merck and Valo Health Announce $3 Billion AI-Driven Collaboration to Advance Parkinson’s Disease Therapeutics

Dec 29, 2025 13:49 CST Updated 13:49
SANEGENEBIO

Small Nucleic Acid Drug Developer

CR SANJIU

Pharmaceutical R&D, Production, Sales, and Related Health Service Provider

Laekna Therapeutics

Innovative Drug Developer

Qilu Pharmaceutical

Specialty Formulations and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Developer

2025Year11In the month, according to incomplete statistics, the global pharmaceutical market signed a total of156Asset Authorization and Cooperation Agreement. Authorization deals in the Chinese market have been reached.25Items, including15Overseas transactions,2Introduction of transactions and8Item domestic transaction.
01
License Out Transaction Overview
The largest overseas transaction this month isSANEGENEBIO and Eli Lilly Reach R&D Collaboration and Licensing AgreementSANEGENEBIO and Eli Lilly will jointly advance the development of RNAi candidate drugs for metabolic diseases based on SANEGENEBIO's proprietary LEAD™ platform. SANEGENEBIO will be responsible for screening and identifying the optimal RNAi active molecules for the collaborative projects using the LEAD™ platform, while Eli Lilly will handle subsequent IND application studies, clinical development, and commercialization. According to the agreement terms, SANEGENEBIO will receive near-term payments including an upfront payment and equity investment. Additionally, SANEGENEBIO is entitled to collect subsequent payments of up to$1.2 billionDevelopment, regulatory, and sales milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on commercial sales.
Table 1：License Out Authorization Transaction Event
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Data Source: YAOZHI DataEnterprise Edition - Investment Landscape Database
02
License In Transaction Overview
This month, there were two licensing-in deals in the Chinese market, neither of which disclosed the specific transaction amount, and both wereChina Resources GroupThe transaction event under, one of which is Shenzhen China Resources Gosun Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd introducing from Maruho company.Oral Faropenem; The second is that CR SANJIU, Langyu Group, and Bioproject have reached a tripartite cooperation agreement. According to this agreement, CR SANJIU has officially obtained innovative drugs.Tilolirsen Tablets (Trade Name: Huacos®)Exclusive rights for development, production, and commercialization in mainland China.
Table 2：License in AuthorizationTransaction Event
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Data Source: YAOZHI DataEnterprise Edition - Investment Landscape Database
03
Overview of Licensing Transactions in China
This month, there were a total of 8 authorized licensing transaction events in China, with the largest transaction amount beingLaekna Therapeutics and Qilu Pharmaceutical Sign Exclusive Licensing Agreement for Breast Cancer Candidate Drug LAE002 (Afuresertib) in ChinaAccording to the terms of the agreement, until the first indication receives new drug application approval in China, Laekna Therapeutics is entitled to receive up to a total of RMBRMB 2.575 billionDown payment and milestone payments.
Table3：Domestic AuthorizationTransaction Event
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Data Source: YAOZHI DataEnterprise Edition - Investment Landscape Database
04
Overview of Overseas Licensing Transactions
In the international market, a total of 91 asset licensing and cooperation agreements were signed this month. Among them, there were 43 licensing deals, with the largest licensing deal beingValo and Merck KGaA Reach Strategic CooperationMerck will leverage Valo's AI biology platform to identify and validate new disease targets, as well as utilize Valo's closed-loop discovery platform to rapidly generate preclinical compounds. The total value of this collaboration exceeds$3 billion, including upfront payment, potential milestone payments, royalties, and R&D funding.
Table4：Overseas Licensing Deal Events
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Data Source: PharmCube DataEnterprise Edition - Investment Landscape Database
05
Summary
In November 2025, Nanobody (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harbour BioMed, completed two overseas licensing deals using its proprietary HCAb platform. In the same month, Valo reached its second major transaction with an MNC this year. In January, Valo announced an expanded agreement with Novo Nordisk, under which Valo is entitled to receive approximately $4.6 billion in total transaction payments. The reason it is referred to as an expanded agreement is that Valo and Novo Nordisk had already established a collaboration in September 2023, at which time Valo could obtain up to $2.7 billion in partnership payments. In recent years, giants such as Eli Lilly, Roche, Novartis, Genentech, and Gilead have heavily invested in AI-driven drug discovery, primarily due to AI’s significant application value in pharmaceutical R&D.
This article is reprinted from PharmaBlock Data

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