US Merck & Co. has agreed to buy Calporta Therapeutics for up to $576 million, including an upfront sum and contingent milestone payments.

Calporta was launched in early 2015 by COI Pharmaceuticals, part of California-based venture capital firm Avalon Ventures. Its preclinical stage TRPML1 agonists are being evaluated for their potential to treat various lysosomal storage and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Alterations in TRPML1 function have been implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases and dystrophies, where intracellular accumulation of proteins or fats has been shown to be toxic to the cell. Activating TRPML1 signalling with small molecules could re-establish lysosomal processes and restore cellular function.

“Increasing evidence points to the accumulation of toxic proteins as a common mechanism in neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's,” said Fiona Marshall, vice president for neuroscience discovery at Merck Research Laboratories. “We look forward to conducting further research to evaluate the potential of TRPML1 agonists to activate a natural clearance mechanism the brain employs to clear toxic proteins.”