The pharma giant will give Variational two targets for new therapies and access to Merck’s proprietary chemistry data; Variational will use its Enki platform to try to identify molecules that could be turned into medicines that do what Merck wants. Neither the targets nor the exact terms were disclosed, though Variational will only get the full amount if its work meets certain milestones. (The Logic)

Talking point: Research and development contracts are the basis of Variational’s business model, and it’s previously made agreements with Vancouver’s Rakovina and Korea’s Oncocross—neither of which is in the same global league as Merck. Variational was founded in 2019; Merck’s venture investment arm was part of Variational’s US$5.5-million funding round announced in February. CEO Handol Kim said then that the company would use the money to pay for more GPUs and double the size of its team, which had nine people.