| Company* (Country; Symbol) |
Company* (Country; Symbol) |
Type/Product Area | Terms/Details (Date) |
| APRIL | |||
| Aegis Therapeutics LLC* | Phylogica Ltd. (Australia; ASX:PYC) | Collaboration to use Aegis' Intravail transmucosal delivery Phylogica's Phylomer peptide drugs | Financial terms were not disclosed (4/14) |
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) | Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISIS) | Alliance to develop single-stranded RNA interference technology in a deal worth up to $31M | Alnylam will fund the research activities at a minimum of $3M a year for three years; the $31M in license fees could come in four tranches: $11M on signing, $10M in 18 months or sooner, $5M upon achievement of in vivo efficacy, and $5M upon the start of the first clinical trial (4/29) |
| Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN) and Eli Lilly and Co. | Altea Therapeutics Corp.* | Collaboration for a transdermal version of the drug using Altea's PassPort Transdermal Delivery System | Amylin and Lilly will make an undisclosed up-front cash payment to Altea, in addition to an equity investment; Altea also is eligible for clinical, regulatory and development milestones of up to $46M, plus royalties on future product sales (4/1) |
| BioFocus DPI* (UK) | TET Systems Holding* (Germany) | Collaboration to apply TET System's inducible gene technology in high-through-put screening campaigns performed for BioFocus DPI customers | The technology allows the activity of individual genes to be controlled quantitatively and reversibly in cellular assays (4/24) |
| Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (CLDX) | Amgen Inc. (AMGN) | Deal giving Celldex rights to two immune-stimulating molecules from Amgen | Celldex gains exclusive rights to develop and market Flt3 and CD40; financial terms were not disclosed (4/9) |
| Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTC BB:CGXP) | MAST BioSurgery Inc.* | Agreement to develop one or more new surgical products incorporating Ceragenix's CeraShield antimicrobial technology | MAST will have exclusive rights to develop specified products and negotiate commercialization terms for those products for six months (4/29) |
| Clinical Genomics Pty Ltd.* (Australia) | Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE:DGX) | Agreement for Quest to provide milestone payments over the next two years to further develop Clinical Genomics' portfolio of gene-based biomarkers associated with the early onset of colorectal cancer | Quest has exclusive rights to the bio-markers for use in developing a test as an aid in detecting precancerous and cancerous colorectal tumors in conjunction with other clinical findings (4/29) |
| Cordex Pharma Inc. (OTC BB:CDXP) | BG Medicine Inc.* | Agreement to collaborate in a Phase II safety trial with CDP-1050 in heart failure patients | BGM will measure levels of Galectin-3 in patients enrolled in the study; financial terms were not disclosed (4/8) |
| DeCode Genetics Inc. (DCGN) | Celera Corp. (CRA) | Nonexclusive worldwide licenses to its genetic markers for increased risk of major cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including heart attack, stroke, atrial fibrillation and Type II diabetes | No financial details were disclosed (4/23) |
| Emisphere Technologies Inc. (EMIS) | AAIPharma Inc. (PK:AAIIQ) | Alliance to expand the application of Emisphere's Eligen technology and AAI-Pharma's drug development services | The technology is designed to provide an improved delivery method for therapeutic molecules and nutritional supplements and can be applied to oral administration or other routes of administration (4/6) |
| Expression Analysis* | RainDance Technologies* | Collaboration to accelerate research into complex diseases in a partnership that will characterize rare mutations | The companies are sponsoring a program to work directly with leading cancer researchers to define a panel of high-priority genomic targets in order to facilitate large-scale targeted resequencing studies of cancer samples (4/20) |
| Fate Therapeutics Inc.* | Stemgent Inc.* | Collaboration to form Catalyst, a program aimed at providing pharma and biotech companies with an induced pluripotent stem cell technology platform for drug discovery and development | Catalyst member companies will gain exclusive access to iPS cell technology, including specific iPS-derived cells for toxicity testing and primary screening (4/23) |
| Galapagos NV (Belgium; BR:GLPG) | Opsona Therapeutics Ltd.* (Ireland) | Drug discovery collaboration under which Galapagos' service division BioFocus DPI will perform biology, medicinal chemistry and ADME/PK services for an Opsona drug discovery program | Opsona will make research payments to BioFocus DPI and fund the work of four to five BioFocus DPI scientists this year (4/21) |
| Hadasit Medical Research Services & Development Ltd.* (Israel) | Immuron Ltd. (ASX:IMC) | Deal whereby Immuron will assign from Hadasit a novel oral immune modulation technology developed by Hadassah Medical Organization physicians and scientists | Hadasit will provide clinical and laboratory services to Immuron and will be issued 19.99% of Immuron's equity, plus royalties (4/20) |
| Horizon Discovery Ltd.* (UK) | Genentech Inc. (unit of Roche) | Collaboration to use Horizon's GENESIS gene-engineering platform to develop genetically defined human X-MAN cancer models for Genentech's drug discovery research programs | The renewable three-year deal builds upon four previous business agreements between the companies; the deal includes up-front, milestone and renewal fees (4/2) |
| ImQuest BioSciences* | Arisyn Therapeutics* | Drug development partnership to provide support to develop Arisyn's portfolio of inhibitors for the treatment of infectious disease and cancer | ImQuest will provide support to begin clinical trials with lead products ATI-0312 for HIV and ATI-0810 for HCV and will initiate mechanistic studies to define the unique virus transcription inhibitory mechanism of action of the class of inhibitors (4/29) |
| InterMed Discovery GmbH* (Germany) | Lead Discovery Center GmbH* (Germany) | Collaboration to identify naturally derived modulators by screening IMD's natural product libraries against targets provided by LDC | Financial terms were not disclosed (4/2) |
| NitroMed Inc. (NTMD) | NicOx SA (France; Paris:COX) | Agreement to sell and license certain patents and patent applications related to its nitric oxide-based technology platform | The deal is worth $7.84M, including an up-front payment of $2.61M and milestones (4/23) |
| OctoPlus NV (the Netherlands; Amsterdam:OCTO) | Undisclosed European biotech company | Drug delivery technology evaluation contract | The deal is part of a plan to develop controlled-release versions of existing or new drugs for clients; OctoPlus will evaluate the feasibility of a controlled-release formulation that combines its drug delivery technology with its client's active ingredient (4/6) |
| Par Pharmaceutical Cos. Inc. (NYSE: PRX) | Reliant Pharmaceuticals Inc.* | Settlement agreement under which Par gains the right to introduce a generic version of Rythmol SR on Jan. 1, 2011 | Financial details were not revealed, but all litigation has been dismissed (4/21) |
| PharmaCom BioVet Inc. (PK:PHMB) | Unidentified research development company | A joint venture agreement for development of a compound for treatment of specific cancers for companion animals | The compound is in the family of histone deacetylase inhibitors, which binds directly to the catalytic site of the enzyme thereby potentially blocking the substrate access (4/1) |
| Prometheus Laboratories Inc.* | Rosetta Genomics Ltd. (Israel; ROSG) | License and collaboration agreement under which Rosetta grants Prometheus U.S. rights to three microRNA-based cancer diagnostic tests: miRview mets, miRview squamous and miRview meso | Rosetta will receive unspecified payments, either as milestones or research and development funding, as well as royalty payments on net sales in the U.S.; the deal also includes an $8M equity investment that Prometheus will make in Rosetta (4/13) |
| SAFC Biosciences* | Vivalis (France; Paris:VLS) | Collaboration to use the Ex-Cell EBx cell growth and viral production media to further enable EB66 duck cells licensees in the development of viral vaccine therapeutics | Vivalis also plans to use the media in the manufacturing of vaccine lots for Phase I/II trials (4/23) |
| Seattle Genetics Inc. (SGEN) | Millennium (subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.; Japan) | Agreement for the development of antibody-drug conjugates | Millennium gets an exclusive license to an initial antigen expressed on solid tumors, and it gains options for exclusive licenses to two other antigens upon payment of additional unspecified fees to Seattle Genetics, which is pocketing $4M up front (4/6) |
| Syntopix Group plc (UK; LSE:SYN) | Major consumer health care company | Exclusive evaluation agreement to make its library of compounds available for evaluation of their application in a number of areas | Specific terms were not disclosed, but Syntopix said it will get an up-front payment, plus further payments for any compounds subject to additional evaluation (4/14) |
| Vyteris Inc. (OTC BB:VYTR) | Zealand Pharma A/S* (Denmark) | Partnership to apply Vyteris' transdermal drug delivery system to Zealand's peptide-based drugs | The companies are planning a preclinical feasibility study; financial terms were not disclosed (4/14) |
| MAY | |||
| Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACAD) | Biovail Corp. (NYSE:BVF) | Partnership on lead drug pimavanserin for Parkinson's disease psychosis | The deal calls for Biovail to pay Acadia $30M in cash up front and up to $365M in milestone payments, of which $160M are tied to clinical and regulatory events in Parkinson's disease psychosis and Alzheimer's disease psychosis; Acadia also gets a 15% royalty (5/4) |
| Cambridge Laboratories Ltd.* (Ireland) | Biovail Corp. (Canada; NYSE:BVF) | Agreement for Biovail to buy the development and marketing rights to the entire portfolio of tetrabenazine products for $230M | The transaction includes Xenazine; Biovail will make a payment of $200M upon closing and will pay $30M in two parts over 24 months (5/18) |
| Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc.* | Cephalon Inc. (CEPH) | Research agreement to explore Celator's proprietary technology in liposomal and nonparticle encapsulation to an ongoing drug development and life-cycle management program at Cephalon | Terms and conditions were not disclosed (5/21) |
| Celgene Corp. (CELG) | GlobeImmune Inc.* | Agreement giving Celgene access to cancer drug programs, including GI-4000, which is in Phase II studies in pancreatic cancer | The deal includes $40M up front, including an equity investment, and more than $500M in milestones, plus double-digit royalties (5/15) |
| Cephalon Inc. (CEPH) | Arana Therapeutics Ltd. (Australia; ASX:AAH) | Agreement for Cephalon's subsidiary to acquire 50.1% interest in Arana | Cephalon is paying A$318M ($207M), or A$1.40 per share, a 70% premium (5/20) |
| China Sky One Medical Inc. (China; CSKI) | Taiwan Golden Biotechnology Corp.* (China) | Agreement to develop Antroquinonol, an anticancer compound extracted from antrodia cinnamomea chang and chou, a rare medical fungus that grows naturally inside the Cinnamomum kane-hirae tree trunk | The firms are developing the drug to treat liver and lung cancers (5/21) |
| Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) and University of Oxford (UK) | ProBioGen AG* (Germany) | License agreement to to evaluate large-scale commercial production capabilities for MVA85A | Emergent and Oxford's consortium will have access to ProBioGen's AGE1.CRpIX cell line, in exchange for an up-front payment to ProBioGen, as well as development milestones and royalties (5/5) |
| Ergomed GmbH* (Germany) | Genzyme Corp. (GENZ) | Agreement for the co-development of tasidotin for cancer | Ergomed will advance the oral formulation into clinical trials (5/6) |
| KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (subsidiary of AstraZeneca plc; UK) | Cancer Research Technology Ltd.* (UK) | Licensing agreement for rights to Cancer's DNA-dependent protein kinase inhibitor program | The deal will mean a significant extra investment into the program, which is based at Newcastle University (5/20**) |
| NeoStem Inc. (AMEX:NBS) | Regenerative Sciences Inc.* | Exclusive royalty-bearing license agreement for the Asia territory rights to use Regenexx, a process that rapidly grows a patient's own adult stem cells to treat a variety of musculo-skeletal diseases | Financial terms were not disclosed (5/11) |
| Promosome LLC* | Lonza Biologics* (Switzerland) | Nonexclusive technology evaluation contract to evaluate Promosome's Translation Enhancing Elements, synthetic messenger RNA sequences that can be used to enhance protein expression in eukaryotic cells, in combination with its GS expression technology | Terms were not disclosed (5/18) |
| Pro-Cure Therapeutics Ltd.* (UK) | Adjuvantix Ltd.* (UK) | Research and development collaboration targeted at a stem cell vaccine for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer | The collaboration will join Pro-Cure's CSC targets and expertise in prostate cancer with Adjuvantix's expertise in vaccine discovery and development (5/14) |
| XOMA Ltd. (XOMA) | Zymeworks Inc.* | Research agreement to optimize an undisclosed antibody using Zymeworks' ZymeCAD suite of predictive protein engineering tools and XOMA's Targeted Affinity Enhancement technology for antibody mutagenesis and optimization | Financial terms were not disclosed (5/15) |
|
Notes: * Private companies are indicated with an asterisk; ** Denotes the date the item ran in BioWorld International. Unless otherwise notes, the trading symbols listed for public biotechnology companies are on the Nasdaq market.ASX = Australian Stock Exchange; BR = Brussels Stock Exchange; LSE = London Stock Exchange; NYSE = New York Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board; PK = Pink Sheets. | |||
