Expanding their existing strategic collaboration for atherosclerotic plaque analysis, FoxHollow Technologies and Merck & Co. Inc. have announced that FoxHollow will collaborate exclusively with Merck in exchange for $40 million paid by the pharmaceutical company over four years.
The focus will remain on the analysis of atherosclerotic plaque collected from patients treated with FoxHollow's SilverHawk Plaque Excision System. The scope and magnitude of these studies have substantially increased and other disease areas have now been added. Merck is using these analyses as a means of identifying novel targets to treat atherosclerosis and biomarkers to develop therapies that are in Merck's pipeline or have been licensed from other partners.
After the four-year agreement, Merck can extend the exclusive arrangement for the sum of $10 million per year paid to FoxHollow.
Merck will also provide a minimum of $60 million to fund activities to be conducted by Fox Hollow under Merck's direction, including removal of atherosclerotic plaque from patient arteries for analysis, as well as for the conducting of clinical trials and drug profiling by Merck.
Merck is acquiring newly issued shares of FoxHollow common stock at $29.629 per share, representing approximately an 11 percent stake in the company.
FoxHollow and Merck began the first pharmaceutical-medical device partnership in September 2005, which was aimed at identifying cardiovascular biomarkers for use as diagnostics and as tools for drug development.
For more details, visit www.foxhollowtech.com and www.merck.com.