Merck Serono, the biopharmaceuticals division of Germany's Merck KGaA, has signed a global license agreement with the Spanish National Research Center (CNIO) in Madrid on cancer drug development. The drugmaker said the pact will build on CNIO's research findings to encourage development and commercialization of new oncology compounds.

As part of the deal, CNIO has granted Merck exclusive rights to develop and commercialize its new inhibitors of the ataxia teleangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) kinase. The German group will make an up-front payment of up to €19 million and receive royalties on net sales of drugs developed.

ATR kinase plays an important role in repairing DNA damage and facilitating cell survival, Merck said. As tumor cells accumulate more DNA damage than healthy cells, blocking ATR kinase activity with selective inhibitors "appears to be a strategy worth investigating further for specific tumor types," it noted.

The agreement includes the licensing of two series of ATR inhibitors as well as a screening platform to validate the compounds, which are currently in the advance preclinical stage.