Merck adds to biopharma’s AI agenda with up to $510M+ Protillion pact

Merck & Co. has entered a multi-target drug discovery and license agreement with California-based AI drug design specialist Protillion Biosciences, signaling an expansion of biopharma's use of AI in drug development.

Under the collaboration, Merck will leverage Protillion's Prot-MaP technology, a megascale data generation platform that produces large training sets for protein‑design AI models, aiming to accelerate the discovery of optimized biologic therapies.

The deal is structured with an undisclosed upfront payment to Protillion, coupled with potential research, development, and commercial milestone payments of up to $510 million tied to the successful advancement of multiple therapy candidates across undisclosed indications.

Merck gains access to Protillion's proprietary protein‑engineering and AI‑driven lab‑in‑the‑loop platform, highlighting pharma's broader trend of investing in AI‑powered discovery platforms rather than single named assets.

Specific targets and disease areas for the collaboration are not disclosed, but the partnership focuses on developing next‑generation biologics, with Protillion retaining potential future involvement through milestone‑linked compensation and likely undisclosed royalty terms.