Palantir Technologies Inc and Merck & Co., Inc. German parent Merck KGaA have entered into a deal that will see them work together on a cancer data analytics project. This comes at a time when the use of technology for improved drug discovery is being adopted across the pharmaceutical industry. However, each of the two has different approaches to the deal even though they will initially focus on treatment and services for cancer patients.
To Palantir, it is a way of diversification into business beyond government contracts but for Merck, the deal represents a larger effort to modernize its tools and drug businesses. Nonetheless, the combined effort will facilitate the development of accurate therapies, which will in return help in gathering vital information about drug efficiency as well as improving patient adherence.
Stressing the emerging need of developing breakthrough technologies
There is high demand for superior data analytics capabilities according to the chairman of the executive board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Stefan Oschmann. Palantir CEO Alex Karp says that his company will have software developers who will work hand in hand with Merck to improve the efficiency of existing medicine supply chains. Merck’s aim is to use Palantir to mend data collected by its researchers with other bioinformatic information.
The deal marks the first step in a long-term partnership, which will give Palantir a cut of Merck’s resulting profits. The long-term plan is to have data tools to all departments of the 349-year-old German company. However, Merck and Palantir rejected a request to provide financial terms of their deal.
Merck has been on a partnership spree
Under its existing Merck University Program, the company has so far signed various collaborative agreements. One of them, worth $230 million, is with Vertex Pharmaceuticals for clinical and pre-clinical anticancer programs. Another involves Stanford Graduate School of Business and just before the close of last year it signed a 2-year improvement and digitization partnership agreement with the European Space Agency.
Nonetheless, the latest collaboration is part of a push for Palantir in Europe, which is its fastest-growing region outside the U.S.
