RTTNews | Jan 7, 2022 09:58AM EST

09:58 Friday, January 7, 2022 (RTTNews.com) - Shares of Absci Corporation (ABSI) are surging over 40% on Friday morning after the company announced a collaboration deal with Merck that could award the company up to $610 million in fees and payments.

ABSI is currently trading at $8.69, up $2.55 or 41.53%, on the Nasdaq, on a heavy volume of 21 million, compared to average volume of 252 thousand.

Absci, a drug and target discovery company based on AI and synthetic biology, said it has entered into a research collaboration with Merck using Absci's AI-powered Integrated Drug Creation Platform.

Under the collaboration, Absci will deploy its Bionic Protein non-standard amino acid technology to produce enzymes tailored to Merck's biomanufacturing applications and receive an upfront and certain other milestone payments.

Further, Merck has the option to nominate up to three targets and enter into a drug discovery collaboration agreement.

Absci would be eligible to receive up to $610 million in upfront fees and milestone payments for all three targets, as well as research funding and tiered royalties on sales.

Read the original article on RTTNews ( https://www.rttnews.com/3253590/absci-stock-surges-40-on-research-collaboration-deal-with-merck.aspx)

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