Biotech Co.* |
Pharma Co. |
Type/Product Area |
Terms/Details (Date) |
Affitech |
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.(Switzerland) |
Agreement to produce fully human monoclonal antibodies against an undisclosed oncology target |
In exchange for screening and antibody engineering work, Affitech will receive an unspecified amount of research fees, milestone payments and royalties (5/7) |
Altea |
Undisclosed |
Agreement to examine the feasibility of developing a transdermal patch product that delivers certain macro-molecular carbohydrates to treat coagulation disorders |
The agreement allows the companies an option to enter a broader licensing arrangement for clinical development and commercialization (5/3) |
Antisoma plc |
Novartis AG (Switzerland) |
Exclusive, global licensing agreement for the vascular disruptin agent AS1404 |
Antisoma will receive $100M in near-term payments, and is eligible for total up-front and milestone payments of up to $890M, contingent on successful marketing of the product in multiple indications and the achievement of certain sales; Antisoma also is entitled to royalties and has an option to co-commercialize in the U.S. (4/19) |
ArQule Inc. |
Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd. (Japan) |
Partnership for the cancer agent ARQ 197 in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan |
ArQule gets $30M up front in the deal and is entitled to up to $93M in development milestone payments, as well as undisclosed sales milestone payments and a double- digit, tiered royalty on any resulting sales (4/27) |
Artemis |
CGI Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
Agreement for worldwide rights to the ASKA technology from CGI |
Artemis and Taconic are assigned the entire portfolio of ASKA intellectual property rights (5/2) |
Astex |
GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) |
Non-exclusive, worldwide license agreement to Astex's cytochrome P450 intellectual property |
Astex will receive an up-front fee (4/24) |
AVEO |
Schering-Plough Corp. |
Partnership for a preclinical antibody program, AV-299, which is designed to bind to and inhibit the hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor |
Schering-Plough will fund all research and development, and will pay AVEO $7.5M up front, plus a $10M equity investment; commercial and development milestones could exceed $460M; AVEO also would be eligible for royalties, and it holds a co- promotion option in the U.S. (4/4) |
Axxam SpA* |
PerkinElmer Inc. |
Agreement under which PE will become the exclusive provider of Axxam's Photina photoprotein technology to the drug discovery market |
Terms provide for a formal R&D program for additional Photina GPCR and ion channel cell lines for use in high-throughput screening and compound profiling (5/22) |
Biolex |
Merial Ltd. (joint venture of Merck & Co. Inc. and Sanofi- Aventis; France) |
Collaboration to develop animal health products using Biolex's LEX System |
The goal is to provide Merial with vaccine antigens; Biolex is entitled to research and development support and milestones; Merial may exercise an option regarding a worldwide license (5/1) |
Cardiome |
Eli Lilly & Co. |
Exclusive, in-licensing agreement for worldwide rights to LY458202 (GED-aPC) for all indications |
Cardiome intends to develop the drug in cardiogenic shock and anticipates beginning Phase I studies in the second half of 2007; terms include a $20M up- front pay- ment to Lilly, plus development milestones not to exceed $40M, and royalty payments based on sales (4/30) |
Cellectis SA |
GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) |
Worldwide, nonexclusive sublicense agreement to a patent family relating to a process for the specific replacement or insertion of a gene in a receiver genome by homologous recombination |
The technology is used to substitute, delete or add genetic sequences at a chosen location in a genome (5/16)** |
Clinical Data |
Roche Diagnostics (subsidiary of Roche Holding AG; Switzerland) |
Co-marketing agreement in support of the installation of a 454 Genome Sequencer FLX System in one of Clinical Data's European facilities |
The technology will be offered on a fee- for- ervice basis, with applications ranging from whole genome sequencing to genomewide expression profiling (3/29) |
Codexis Inc.* |
Merck & Co. Inc. |
Three-year, nonexclusive licensing agreement to the Codex Biocatalyst Panels |
Merck is the first subscriber of the product, which consists of sets of diagnostic enzyme panels designed to identify optimizable biocatalytic process solutions for chemically challenging manufacturing issues (4/3) |
Coley |
Merck & Co. Inc. |
Licensing deal that gives Merck rights to VaxImmune, an adjuvant technology, for use in developing vaccines for infectious diseases and Alzheimer's |
Coley will get $4M up front and up to $33M in milestones, as well as royalties on any product sales; Merck holds nonexclusive rights for certain infectious disease fields and Alzheimer's disease, and holds an option to add additional disease areas (4/12) |
Cytos AG |
Novartis AG (Switzerland) |
Partnership for CYT002- NicQb, a therapeutic vaccine for nicotine addiction |
Novartis received worldwide rights to the drug, which has completed Phase II trials; Cytos gets CHF35M (US$29M) up front, with CHF565M more tied to certain milestones; it also is eligible for royalties (4/25) |
EpiStem plc |
AstraZeneca plc (UK) |
Agreement to use EpiStem's plucked hair biomarker technology to help guide preclinical and clinical development of cancer drugs |
Terms of the deal were not disclosed (5/22) |
Genencor |
Pfizer Inc. |
Nonexclusive licensing agreement for technology that enhances the expression level of secreted polypeptides in microorganisms for use in the development of protein therapeutics |
The technology is designed to improve processes for protein production, which in turn might reduce development costs for protein-based drugs (4/2) |
GenomeQuest |
Servier (France) |
Collaboration to connect results from high-throughput microarray experiments to qPCR platforms from different vendors, including Servier reagent datasets |
GenomeQuest retained the right to commercialize the software and know-how (5/1) |
Helix BioMedix |
DermaVentures LLC |
Agreement to provide technology and services to allow DermaVentures to use Helix's peptide technologies, and to manage day-to-day operations |
DermaVentures will take an equity position in Helix BioMedix (4/23) |
InNexus Biotechnology Inc. (Canada; CDNX:IXS) |
Royalty Pharma |
Agreement for a royalty interest in up to two cancer products based on InNexus' Dynamic Cross Linking antibody enhancement technology |
Royalty Pharma will buy the first royalty interest for $2M and will hold an option to purchase a royalty interest in a second product for an additional $2M; it also will make a $1M equity investment in InNexus (4/26) |
Inno Biologics |
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Germany) |
10-year cooperation agreement whereby Inno clients will have access to BI's manufacturing technology platform |
The platform will be used for Phase I and Phase II biopharmaceutical products produced by mammalian cell culture (5/10) |
Isis |
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. |
Agreement for the Phase II low- ensity lipoproteincholesterol-lowering drug, ISIS 301012 |
Bristol-Myers gets an exclusive license to the PCSK9 program, as well as $15M up front, at least $9M in research funding over three years, up to $168M in milestones and royalties (5/9) |
KaloBios |
Novartis AG (Switzerland) |
Non-exclusive, licensing agreement for KaloBios Humaneering method for humanizing antibodies |
Terms were not disclosed (4/24) |
Manhattan |
Thornton & Ross Ltd. (UK) |
Exclusive North American rights agreement to develop and commercialize two product candidates from Thornton & Ross |
The two candidates are Altoderm for atopic dermatitis or eczema and Altolyn for mastocytosis (4/4) |
Medarex Inc. |
Organon NV (the Netherlands) |
Joint development and commercialization deal for fully human monoclonal antibody against an undisclosed target in the areas of cancer and auto- immune disease |
It is a 50-50 partnership; both firms will share responsibilities and revenues (5/16) |
MedImmune |
Sanofi Pasteur (France) |
Licensing agreement for MedImmune's reverse- genetics property |
The license will support the development and construction of new vaccine strains for influenza vaccines; MedImmune will receive an up-front payment and could receive royalties on certain vaccine stockpiles or product sales (3/29) |
Melior |
Pfizer Inc. |
Deal for Melior to apply its indications discovery platform to Pfizer's compounds |
The theraTRACE platform entails multi- plexed in vivo assays designed to discover new therapeutics indications for existing pharmaceutical compounds (4/9) |
Micromet Inc. |
Nycomed A/S (Denmark) |
Development deal for the preclinical MT203 program for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease |
Micromet will receive reimbursements and milestone payments, as well as royalties on sales; it is responsible for preclinical work, while Nycomed will cover clinical trials and worldwide commercialization (5/24) |
MultiCell |
Eisai Co. Ltd. (Japan) |
Non-exclusive, licensing agreement for Fa2N-4 immortalized human hepatocyte cells and MFE culture media |
Eisai will use the technology for drug discovery/ADMETOX applications; terms were not disclosed (4/24) |
Neuromed |
ALZA Corp. (unit of Johnson & Johnson) |
Agreement for U.S. rights to OROS Hydromorphone |
Neuromed paid $30M up front and will pay milestones and royalties for the pain drug (4/24) |
Oxford |
Sanofi Pasteur (unit of Sanofi- Aventis Group; France) |
Licensing agreement for Oxford's T-SPOT technology for use in vaccine programs |
T-SPOT offers an approved method for directly quantifying antigen-specific T cells (4/4) |
ProBioGen AG* |
Minapharm (Egypt) |
Agreements to develop two therapeutic proteins, one exclusively for Minapharm and a second for co-promotion |
In the first deal, ProBioGen will apply its cell generation process for biopharmaceutical cell lines and Minapharm will carry out the research and development, production and commercialization; the second deal calls for the companies to co-develop a second-generation product (4/19) |
Proteros |
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
Agreement in the field of protein crystallography |
Proteros is entitled to research funding and success payments for the generation and analyses of protein-ligand structures of hits and evolved chemical entities from BI programs (5/15) |
pSivida Ltd. |
Pfizer Inc. |
Licensing deal to use sustained- release drug delivery, including pSivida's Medidur, in ophthalmic applications |
Pfizer agreed to invest $5M in ordinary shares up front, proceeds of which will be held in escrow until pSivida uses them to redeem an outstanding convertible note; another $5M investment from Pfizer could come later and the rest of $165M would be paid in development and sales milestones (4/4) |
Regeneron |
Astellas Pharma (Japan) |
Licensing agreement for Regeneron's VelocImmune antibody discovery technology |
Astellas will pay Regeneron $120M over the next five years, including $20M up front, for a non-exclusive license for the technology; Regeneron also is entitled to a mid-single-digit percentage royalty (3/30) |
Stem Cell |
Lundbeck A/S (Denmark) |
Agreement to examine the hepatic metabolism of a set of compounds from Lundbeck |
SCI will use its C3A human liver cell line, which was developed for use in an artificial liver used to support patients waiting for transplantation (5/7) |
SuperGen Inc. |
Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (India) |
Agreement for SuperGen to sell the rights to the anticancer agents mitomycin and paclitaxel |
The sale price is $1.2M; SuperGen also will sell for additional consideration certain related inventory (4/20) |
Syndax |
Bayer Schering Pharma AG |
Exclusive licensing agreement to the oral, selective histone deacetylase inhibitor, MS-275 |
Bayer will receive up-front fees and milestone payments (4/13) |
Synosia |
Novartis AG (Switzerland) |
Exclusive, worldwide licensing agreement to develop and commercialize rufinamide to treat mood disorders outside of Japan |
Tokyo-based Eisai Co. Ltd. holds worldwide rights in Japan (4/23) |
Transgene SA |
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland) |
Collaboration on Transgene's late-stage vaccine against human papillomavirus-related diseases, TG 4001 (MVA-HPV-IL2) |
Roche gained worldwide rights in ex- change for €13M up front and another €10M for a near-term milestone, along with up to €195M in development and sales-based milestones; total deal is worth $293M (4/11) |
Vernalis plc |
Servier (France) |
Joint, three-year oncology drug discovery collaboration involving an undisclosed target |
Companies will use Vernalis' drug discovery platform on the target; Vernalis will receive an up-front payment and be entitled to a share in the downstream success of the product (5/17) |
Notes: | |||
# The information in the chart does not cover agricultural agreements or those between biotech companies. | |||
* Private companies are indicated with an asterisk; ** Denotes the date the item ran in BioWorld International. | |||
Unless otherwise noted, stock symbols listed are on the Nasdaq market. | |||
AMEX = American Stock Exchange; CDNX = Canadian Venture Exchange; CSE = Copenhagen Stock Exchange; LSE = London Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board; SWX = Swiss Stock Exchange. | |||