AstraZeneca signs respiratory pact with Amgen
pharmafile | April 5, 2012 | News story | Research and Development | Amgen, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, respiratory
AstraZeneca has bought its way into Amgen’s inflammation portfolio with a $50 million upfront payment to co-develop and commercialise five monoclonal antibodies.
After 2014 the companies will share costs and profits of developing AMG 139, AMG 157, AMG 181, AMG 557 and brodalumab (AMG 827). Until then, AstraZeneca will pay two-thirds of the costs.
In addition to the welcome money, its new partner’s reach is the appeal for Amgen, along with the respiratory, inflammation and asthma development expertise that AstraZeneca’s biologics arm MedImmune brings.
AstraZeneca already has well-established asthma treatment Pulmicort and respiratory drug Symbicort on its books.
Dr. Bing Yao, head of MedImmune’s respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity (RIA) innovative medicine unit, told InPharm that the work of his business unit was “certainly one of the major reasons” for the deal taking place.
“We have strong expertise in respiratory,” he said. “MedImmune will be leading three projects out of the five.”
Yao would not be drawn on which molecules MedImmune sees as being the most promising. “The trials are ongoing so it’s about the data,” he said. “Based on the data, we will decide the next steps.”
The companies hope all five products could be turned into potentially innovative treatments for a variety of respiratory and inflammatory diseases.
“We believe this collaboration has the potential to bring more therapies to patients sooner, across more geographic areas,” says Amgen chairman Kevin Sharer.
The company already has a tie-up for brodalumab – currently being investigated to treat psoriasis (planned phase III), psoriatic arthritis (phase II) and asthma (phase II) – with Kyowa Hakko Kirin.
It also has an agreement with Takeda for AMG 557, which is in phase 1b for autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, but the agreement with AstraZeneca does not affect either of these.
Amgen will decide the development and commercialisation strategy for those two drugs, with AstraZeneca leading on the other three, with the plans for all five overseen by joint governing bodies.
“We are delighted to join forces with Amgen in developing and commercialising these novel clinical-stage assets that add value to our pipeline and build on our expertise in biologics,” said AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan.
Most of the details of promotion rights have yet to be announced, but for brodalumab – which binds to and blocks signalling via the IL-17 receptor – Amgen will be handling dermatology and rheumatology indications in the US and Canada, plus rheumatology indications in Europe.
AstraZeneca will have promotional responsibilty for the molecule in these indications outside the US, Canada and markets where Amgen has existing partnerships.
Other rights will be divvied up later.
The properties of the remaining molecules are as follows:
AMG 139 neutralises IL-23 interaction with its receptor while sparing IL-12 and is in phase I trials for Crohn’s disease, with possibilities in psoriasis and other inflammatory conditions.
AMG 157 is in phase Ib as a potential treatment for asthma, and blocks the interaction of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) with the TSLP receptor
AMG 181 blocks binding to MAdCAM-1 and is in phase Ib trials for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Adam Hill
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