Merck KGAA’s $13 billion acquisition of Serono in 2006 created an unwieldy pharmaceutical organization further hobbled by expensive clinical setbacks. Seven years later, driven by new leadership, it is in the midst of an overdue transformation.

Despite the availability of new oral medicines, larger advances in MS remain elusive, especially for those with advanced MS. Two nonprofit groups, the National MS Society’s Fast Forward venture arm and the Myelin Repair Foundation, are thinking creatively in different ways – but both spending millions of dollars – to make those breakthroughs come sooner.

Our monthly update on technology transfer deals--licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions--in the fields of life sciences, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and research/analytical instrumentation and reagents.