Pharmaceutical companies, he said, are often bad at developing the types of molecular compounds that Harvard researchers created after receiving a $28 million donation for the research four years ago.  

"Now, (Merck) will bring industry's capacity to do what it does best — develop compounds with optimal properties, run well-designed clinical trials, and bring the manufacturing and marketing muscle necessary to get a good drug into the hands of doctors and patients," he wrote.  

Such deals invite no shortage of controversy, since some do not like the idea of academia selling out to big business. But for a medical innovation to serve its intended purpose, Zimerman argued, "a handoff needs to occur at some point."  

Drug companies, of course, are not held in particularly high esteem these days. While some of the "new kids on the block," most notably Turin Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, have made headlines with astronomical price increases for life-saving drugs, the mainstays of the industry, such as Merck, have also steadily hiked the prices of their medications at a rate well above inflation.