Company (location) |
Company (location) |
Value (M) |
Type/product area |
Terms/details |
Date |
NOVEMBER | |||||
Myriad Genetics Inc. (Salt Lake City) |
Abbvie Inc. (North Chicago) |
ND |
Expanded companion diagnostic agreement to use Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx as a companion diagnostic in support of Abbvie's poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitor, veliparib |
The collaboration builds on previous agreements |
11/4/14 |
Newlink Genetics Corp. (Ames, Iowa) |
Merck & Co. Inc. (Whitehouse Station, N.J.) |
$50 |
Licensing agreement for global R&D and manufacturing rights for Newlink's phase I Ebola vaccine, rVSV-EBOV, and follow-on products |
Merck will pay $30M up front, plus $20M more once efficacy testing begins early next year; the Public Health Agency of Canada, which originally developed the vaccine, retained noncommercial rights |
11/26/14 |
DECEMBER | |||||
Amunix Operating Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) |
Eli Lilly and Co. (Indianapolis) |
ND |
Exercised option to an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize an XTEN product, a recombinant polypeptide that extends the in vivo half-life of therapeutics payloads |
The company will receive an exercised option fee and be eligible to receive additional undisclosed regulatory milestone payments, plus royalties on worldwide commercial sales of the Lilly XTEN product in development |
12/18/14 |
Argen-x BV (Ghent, Belgium) |
Shire plc (Dublin) |
ND |
Exercised option to license and advance one or more human antibody candidates into preclinical development, triggering an obligation to pay Argen-x an undisclosed milestone payment |
The option stems from a 2012 therapeutic antibody alliance between the two companies |
12/12/14 |
Cytokinetics Inc. (South San Francisco) |
Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo) |
$675 |
Amended collaboration focused on the research, development and commercialization of skeletal muscle activators |
Terms call for Cytokinetics to receive $55M, comprising $30M in an up-front license fee, $10M for Astellas' purchase of Cytokinetics' common stock and $15M in a milestone payment linked to Astellas' decision to advance CK-2127107 into phase II; Cytokinetics expects to receive potentially more than $20M to reimburse planned R&D expenses over the next two years and is eligible to receive more than $600M in pre-commercialization and commercialization milestone payments, of which more than $100M is payable for CK-2127107 in each of SMA and other neuromuscular indications; terms also provide for escalating royalties |
12/24/14 |
Dynavax Technologies Corp. (Berkeley, Calif.) |
Astrazeneca plc (London) |
ND |
Amended research collaboration and license agreement, under which Astrazeneca will fully fund and Dynavax will conduct a phase IIa study of AZD1419 in patients with asthma |
The study, set to start in the first half of 2015, will test the second-generation Toll-like receptor-9 agonist CpG oligodeoxynucleotide formulated for inhalation use |
12/9/14 |
Gilead Sciences Inc. (Foster City, Calif.) |
Janssen R&D Ireland (Cork, Ireland; a unit of Johnson & Johnson) |
ND |
Expanded agreement for the development and commercialization of a new once-daily single tablet regimen containing its tenofovir alafenamide and emtricitabine, and Janssen's rilpivirine |
The original agreement was established in 2009 for the development and commercialization of Complera, marketed as Eviplera in the EU, which combines tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, emtricitabine and rilpivirine in a once-daily tablet; Gilead will initiate phase III studies of emtricitabine/rilpivirine/TAF and will be responsible for the manufacturing, registration, distribution and commercialization of the regimen in most countries, while Janssen will distribute in approximately 17 markets; also amended a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of a once-daily single tablet regimen for HIV containing Gilead's TAF, emtricitabine and cobicistat, and Janssen's darunavir |
12/30/14 |
Intelgenx Corp. (Saint Laurent, Quebec) |
Edgemont Pharmaceuticals LLC (Austin, Texas) |
ND |
Exercised right to extend its license for the exclusive marketing of major depressive disorder drug Forfivo XL 450 mg tablets |
Terms were not disclosed |
12/3/14 |
Ossianix Inc. (Philadelphia) |
H. Lundbeck A/S (Valby, Denmark) |
ND |
Expanded and extended its collaboration involving the use of Ossianix's single domain antibody platform based on the shark VNAR structure to deliver next-generation central nervous system biotherapeutics |
Ossianix will work with Lundbeck on multiple targets aligned with the big pharma's therapeutic goals, and the collaboration will continue to work on the ligand-gated P2X3 ion channel expressed on sensory neurons for the treatment of neuropathic pain; Lundbeck will fund the research plan with development and regulatory milestones, and a joint research committee will manage the projects |
12/17/14 |
Philogen SpA (Siena, Italy) |
Pfizer Inc. (New York) |
ND |
Expanded relationship to include an option and license agreement giving Pfizer the right to develop and commercialize multiple antibody-drug conjugates |
Pfizer has exclusive rights to pursue development of certain ADCs and guided nanoparticles and will be responsible for R&D and potential commercialization of candidate molecules |
12/23/14 |
Zymeworks Inc. (Vancouver, British Columbia) |
Merck & Co. Inc. (Whitehouse Station, N.J.) |
ND |
Extended its 2011 research collaboration |
Merck also gains expanded access to Zymeworks' Azymetric platform for the development of bispecific therapeutic candidates |
12/10/14 |
JANUARY | |||||
23andme Inc. (South San Francisco) |
Pfizer Inc. (New York) |
ND |
Expanded research agreement to provide Pfizer with access to 23andme's research platform, including services and analysis of the consumer genetics company's genotyped population of more than 800,000 customers |
They will collaborate on certain genomewide association studies, surveys and clinical trial recruitment; one of the collaborations will be a longitudinal study to better understand the genetics of lupus |
1/13/15 |
Adimab LLC (Lebanon, N.H.) |
Glaxosmithkline plc (London) |
ND |
Expanded collaboration in which Adimab will build a custom library for GSK for use in generating bispecific antibody leads |
Adimab will use that library as well as existing Adimab technology in collaboration with GSK to discover antibodies against multiple targets and generate bispecific antibodies against combinations of those targets; Adimab also will transfer the library to GSK for its internal use in the discovery of bispecifics; GSK will have the right to develop and commercialize therapeutic bispecifics generated from the library |
1/13/15 |
Gilead Sciences Inc. (Foster City, Calif.) |
Mylan Laboratories Ltd. (Hyderabad, India; subsidiary of Mylan Inc.) |
ND |
Expanded hepatitis C licensing agreement to include the non-exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute the NS5A inhibitor GS-5816 and single-tablet regimen of sofosbuvir (Sovaldi)/GS-5816 |
The single-tablet regimen is being evaluated in phase III studies for the treatment of all six genotypes of hepatitis C |
1/27/15 |
Mersana Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) |
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan) |
ND |
Expanded partnership to create Fleximer antibody-drug conjugate drug candidates to include additional oncology-relevant targets |
Mersana is eligible to receive additional up-front and milestone payments potentially worth more than $300M under the revised deal, subject to future success; the original agreement was announced in April 2014 |
1/13/15 |
Oxford Biotherapeutics plc (Oxford, UK) |
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany) |
ND |
Exercised option to receive exclusive rights to an oncology target discovered with Oxford's OGAP system |
Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for development and commercialization of antibody products to the target; Oxford Biotherapeutics will receive development and regulatory milestone payments, and royalties on sales |
1/15/15 |
Txcell SA (Valbonne, France) |
Ferring International Center SA (Saint-Prex, Switzerland) |
$91 |
Collaboration, option, development and license agreement is now assigned to Trizell Holding SA, of Lausanne, Switzerland |
The 2013 Ferring deal to commercialize Ovasave valued at $91.3M in up-front and milestone payments, plus undisclosed royalties is unchanged |
1/5/15 |
FEBRUARY | |||||
Dendreon Corp. (Seattle) |
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (Laval, Quebec) |
$400 |
Amended agreement in connection with the court-supervised sales process |
Under the amended terms, subject to bankruptcy court approval, Valeant would acquire worldwide rights to prostate cancer vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T) and certain other Dendreon assets for $400M subject to higher and better bids; terms of the original agreement, disclosed earlier in the month, called for Valeant to pay $296M for Provenge and certain other Dendreon assets, subject to higher and better bids |
2/6/15 |
Onconova Therapeutics Inc. (Newtown, Pa.) |
Baxter Healthcare SA (subsidiary of Baxter International Inc.) |
ND |
Baxter decided not to pursue additional trials or the submission of a drug approval application for the oral formulation of rigosertib in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients |
The agreement between the companies remains in place, but the financials from the potential $565M deal now are lower |
2/4/15 |
|
Notes The date indicated refers to the BioWorld Today issue in which the news item can be found. | |||||