Merck signed a multi‑year research pact with Quotient Therapeutics, paying $20 million up front for access to the startup’s somatic‑genomics platform to hunt drug targets in inflammatory bowel disease. Quotient, a Flagship Pioneering spun‑out company, uses deep somatic mutation sequencing and AI to identify disease‑driving cells and pathways. The partnership expands a string of large pharma deals for Quotient — the company is eligible for sizeable downstream milestones that could push the collaboration’s value into the billions. Merck said the platform could reveal unique biology in IBD patients and feed target nomination into its discovery pipeline.