Astellas in $500m deal with Cytokinetics
pharmafile | June 27, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Astellas, cytokinetics
Astellas Pharma could pay out $40 million over the next two years to US firm Cytokinetics as part of a deal to develop new treatments for conditions and diseases where muscle weakness is a key factor.
The Tokyo-based manufacturer may then be in line to cough up another $450 million in potential milestone payments plus royalties if things go well – although R&D is at a very early stage.
As part of the small print, Astellas has been given an exclusive license to co-develop and commercialise Cytokinetics’ Phase I candidate CK-2127107, a fast skeletal troponin activator, in non-neuromuscular indications.
Cytokinetics will handle Phase I and much of getting the compound ready for Phase II, when Astellas will take the reins in its development.
The bulk of the deal sees Astellas with the rights to develop other fast skeletal troponin activators in non-neuromuscular indications and other novel mechanism skeletal muscle activators for all conditions.
However, the tie-up does not include the Phase II candidate tirasemtiv – which is also in this class – and which Cytokinetics will continue to independently develop for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neuromuscular disorders.
“Through this collaboration, we intend to jointly investigate the potential role that CK-2127107 and follow-on skeletal muscle activators can play in providing functional improvements in patients with diseases characterised by muscle weakness and fatigue,” explained Cytokinetics chief executive Robert Blum.
He said the company had been impressed with Astellas’ ability in novel mechanism biopharmaceutical R&D, adding that the new deal will enable the expansion of R&D in skeletal muscle activators.
Understanding the chemistry and pharmacology of skeletal muscle contractility will be crucial: it is driven by the sarcomere, a cytoskeletal structure comprising several key proteins including skeletal muscle myosin, which converts chemical energy into force through interaction with another protein, actin.
Regulatory proteins including tropomyosin and some types of troponin, make this actin-myosin interaction dependent on changes in intracellular calcium levels.
Cytokinetics therefore hopes that finding small molecule skeletal sarcomere activators will provide key steps forward, because in non-clinical models they have demonstrated pharmacological activity that may lead to new therapeutic options for diseases associated with ageing, muscle wasting and neuromuscular dysfunction.
Astellas chief executive Yoshihiko Hatanaka said the deal would “expand the new frontier of muscle biology”.
Adam Hill
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