Montreal's Ambrilia Biopharma Inc has entered a licensing agreement with Merck & Co Inc for worldwide rights to its HIV/AIDS protease inhibitor program. The deal will see Ambrilia receive US$17 million in an upfront licensing fee with payments of up to $215 million if it completes specified development, clinical, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as royalties on all future sales. The agreement applies to the firm's PPL-100 lead compound which is currently in a Phase I repeat dose pharmacokinetic study. If successfully completed, it will receive an initial milestone payment of $3 million. Abrilia plans to use the proceeds of the Merck agreement to advance its R&D for other technologies and product candidates. Ambrilia was created earlier this year, through a merger of Procyon Biopharma Inc and Cellpep SA, a privately held French firm. Prior to the Merck deal, Procyon had raised more than $92 million, went public on the TSX and concluded three out-licensing deals. Earlier this year it received nearly $1 million from the Industrial Research Assistance Program (R$, January 24/06)...