By Karen Pihl-Carey
Staff Writer
Sangamo Biosciences Inc. entered into its first major deal in the field of human therapeutics with Baxter Healthcare Corp.
The strategic alliance, which involves Sangamo's proprietary zinc finger DNA binding proteins (ZFPs), could mean up to $40 million in research funding, option fees, loans and milestone payments for Sangamo, of Point Richmond, Calif.
The two companies will work to develop and commercialize novel therapeutics for ischemic cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases. Baxter is spinning out a cardiovascular group that will have exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and market Sangamo's ZFPs for the activation of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) and VEGF receptors.
"We're thrilled," said Sangamo president and CEO Edward Lanphier from the Chase H&Q Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. "We have actually 16 corporate partnering agreements with major pharmaceutical companies, all in the area of targeted validation and functional genomics using our technology, our [Universal] GeneTools business. But this is our first major human therapeutics deal."
Lanphier said the company will present the deal at H&Q on Thursday, the closing day of the conference.
Of the $40 million, privately held Sangamo will receive about $5 million in an up-front payment. The milestones are contingent on the successful preclinical and clinical development of the ZFPs, as well as the commercialization of them, Lanphier said. Sangamo also will receive royalties on product sales.
Sangamo and Baxter, of Deerfield, Ill., will share research and development responsibilities, with Sangamo designing ZFPs to activate VEGFs and VEGF receptors, as well as advancing product candidates into preclinical testing. Baxter will take care of production, regulatory affairs, clinical development and marketing of any resulting products.
The deal includes an 18-month option for Baxter to acquire a three-year right of first refusal to Sangamo's future ZFP therapeutic product candidates in the cardiovascular field. And the alliance could be expanded to include additional gene targets.
"There are other target genes that are involved in angiogenesis and cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases," Lanphier told BioWorld Today. "So this is structured in a way that gives Baxter an option to require a right of first refusal."
The two companies plan to have some lead product candidates within a year, Lanphier said.
The ZFP platform is capable of rapidly and rationally producing drug candidates to regulate specific genes. ZFPs can be engineered to recognize a specific and unique DNA sequence within an entire genome, meaning they can be generated to discriminate between closely related genes.
The Sangamo and Baxter alliance will initially focus on selecting candidates for the up-regulation of VEGF and VEGF receptors. Company scientists will develop engineered ZFP transcription factors targeted to VEGF and VEGF receptor genes in order to induce new blood vessel growth.
Baxter Healthcare Corp. is the principal U.S. subsidiary of Baxter International Inc. The company announced plans in 1999 to spin off its cardiovascular group as an independent, publicly traded company with annual sales of about $900 million.
Sangamo's ZFP transcription factors are being developed as drug candidates for cardiovascular disease, cancer and infectious diseases. The company also has 16 corporate partners using the Universal GeneTools to identify, analyze and validate commercially relevant gene targets in human cells, plants or disease related pathogens. Partners include Pfizer Inc., of New York; Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass.; and Schering AG, of Berlin, among several others.