“Often From Small Beginnings, Come Perfect Green Shoots”: Merck Invests Initial $20M, In Quotient’s IBD Somatic Genetic Mutation Approach…

The actual amount of money involved at the outset… is positively waifish, a bar tip, from the massive coffers of Rahway, but it is an important first step, for Quotient.

A potential first step to finding new approaches to treating IBD, a developed world high-burden disease (likely in part due to our generally richer — animal fat-laden — diets). Here’s the latest, from Fierce Biotech:

…After generating interest from the likes of Pfizer and GSK, Quotient Therapeutics’ somatic genomics platform has attracted another Big Pharma suitor in Merck & Co.

Looking to devise new drug targets in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Merck will pay Quotient $20 million upfront for access to the Flagship Pioneering-founded biotech’s somatic genomics platform.

Quotient’s tech interrogates patient tissue for somatic genetic mutations “within the context of disease,” aiming to pinpoint mutations that cause or protect from various conditions, the company explained in a March 24 press release….

Now you know. Onward, grinning — as an M&A deal of size (over a hundred times this $20 million size) is up next — for Gilead. See above in a few.

नमस्ते