Merck to pay SurModics $9 million after ending collaboration

Eden Prairie, MN—Merck & Co. Inc. will pay SurModics Inc. $9 million after deciding to end the license and research collaboration agreement the companies signed in June 2007, according to SurModics.

Merck’s decision to discontinue the collaboration was made following a strategic review of its business and product development portfolio, according to representatives from SurModics. The decision was not based on any concerns about the safety or efficacy of its sustained drug-delivery system (I-vation TA), the platform on which it is based (I-vation), or any other sustained drug-delivery system made by the company, the company said in a prepared statement.

“We understand and respect that our partners must undertake strategic reviews which on occasion result in a change of focus or even the discontinuation of projects,” said Bruce Barclay, president and chief executive officer of SurModics. “Merck has been an exceptional partner, and we have a great deal of respect for their development capabilities and highly skilled personnel. While we are disappointed by this decision, our diversification strategy has yielded a broad base of customers and development programs within ophthalmology, as well as across our other areas of business.”

In addition to drug-delivery technologies (coatings, microparticles, and implants), SurModics offers to the health-care industry surface-modification technologies designed to impart lubricity, prohealing, and biocompatibility capabilities, as well as components for in vitro diagnostic test kits and specialized surfaces for cell culture and microarrays.