Building A Neuroscience Pipeline with Robust Science, Strong Focus, Partners

More and more frequently in the office of Darryle Schoepp, the phone rings to announce a potential partner interested in working with Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada). As senior vice president and franchise head for neuroscience and opthahalmology at Merck Research Laboratories, Schoepp has global responsibility for product discovery and development. He is also a member of the Merck Global Scientific Strategy group, which is responsible for the prioritization of the overall Merck pipeline.

The phone calls that really make his day, Schoepp said, are those in which potential partners bring truly innovative approaches against symptoms or underlying mechanisms of diseases with high unmet medical need such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's disease.

"Whether it's a rare late-stage candidate drug or it is early-stage data on a promising target, the ideas that really strike you are those that are very novel, that come with a robust body of data and where the path to the therapeutic and the patient is quire clear," Schoepp said.

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