Protillion Biosciences secures US$510M Merck deal for AI biologics discovery

USA—AI drug design company Protillion Biosciences has entered into a US$510 million biobucks collaboration and licence agreement with global pharmaceutical leader Merck & Co., marking a significant push to expand AI-driven biologics discovery.

The agreement brings together Protillion’s computational biology platform with Merck’s established drug development expertise to support the discovery of next-generation therapies.

Under the partnership, both companies will work together on multiple drug discovery programs, with a focus on improving how proteins are designed and optimized for therapeutic use.

Prot-MaP platform and AI-driven protein design

At the center of the collaboration is Protillion’s Prot-MaP technology, a high-throughput data-generation system that produces large-scale training datasets for protein-design AI models.

The platform enables quantitative evaluation of protein libraries and helps reduce common machine-learning challenges such as model overfitting.

By generating richer and more structured datasets, Prot-MaP supports the identification of optimized biologics with advanced therapeutic properties.

These include features such as pH-dependent sweeping activity and multi-target specificity, which are often difficult to achieve using traditional protein engineering approaches.

The companies will integrate this system into Merck’s broader drug discovery workflow to speed up early-stage research and improve candidate selection.

Deal structure and milestone payments

Although the upfront payment remains undisclosed, Protillion is eligible to receive additional research, development, and commercial milestone payments linked to the success of multiple therapeutic programs.

The structure ties financial rewards to scientific and clinical progress, a common model in large-scale pharmaceutical collaborations.

The agreement also strengthens Protillion’s position as a rising player in AI-enabled drug design, particularly as demand grows for more efficient biologics discovery platforms.

Merck’s expanding AI and R&D collaborations

The deal adds to a series of strategic partnerships by Merck & Co. in recent months, reflecting a sustained focus on artificial intelligence and data-driven drug development.

Earlier agreements have included collaborations across cloud computing, antibody discovery, and inflammatory disease research, signaling the company’s continued investment in digital transformation within its R&D pipeline.

Industry observers note that large pharmaceutical firms are increasingly integrating AI tools to shorten development timelines and improve precision in target identification, with Merck positioning itself at the center of this shift.

Leadership and scientific expansion at Protillion

Protillion Biosciences has also strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Bob Hollingsworth as chief scientific officer.

He previously held senior scientific roles at Shoreline Therapeutics, Pfizer, GSK, and MedImmune, bringing extensive experience in biologics and therapeutic development.

The company continues to expand its internal pipeline while building external collaborations to scale its AI-driven discovery capabilities across multiple therapeutic areas.

Executive perspective on the Collaboration

Curtis Layton, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Protillion Biosciences, said the partnership reflects the growing value of the company’s platform in solving complex protein engineering challenges.

He added that working with Merck will help accelerate the development of improved medicines by combining advanced computational design with large-scale experimental validation.