Arena Pharmaceuticals Announces Achievement of a $3 Million Milestone Under Merck Collaboration for Assay Development
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San Diego. Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the achievement of a $3 million milestone from Merck & Co., Inc. for assay development under their cardiovascular collaboration.
In 2002, Arena and Merck entered into a collaboration focused on a group of GPCR targets discovered by Arena, which may represent novel targets for cardiovascular disease. Arena announced in the first quarter of 2004 the achievement of a $4 million milestone under this collaboration related to animal testing of small molecules in this program.
"We are pleased with Merck's commitment to the cardiovascular program and their further validation of our GPCR research programs," commented Dr. Dominic P. Behan, Arena's co-founder, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. "We look forward to continuing our work with Merck to achieve our mutual goal of developing a successful product to treat cardiovascular disease."