>SRDX / MRK – I thought $20 million upfront was small change from your viewpoint, especially when coupled with the option to walk away.<
$20 up-front is a small sum for a big company like MRK to pay in a deal where the technology goes in one direction.
But you seem to be missing the point that the technology in the SRDX-MRK deal does not move in one direction: SRDX is furnishing the device but MRK will furnish the drugs to be eluted by the device in all embodiments other than one with triamcinolone.
All told, this is IMO a much more economically attractive deal for SRDX than the PYY deal with MRK was for NSTK.