| Biotech Co.* (Country; Symbol) |
Pharma Co. (Country) | Type/Product Area | Terms/Details (Date) |
| FEBRUARY 2009 | |||
| Access Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX:AKC) | JCOM Ltd. (affiliate of Dong-A Pharmaceuticals; South Korea) | Definitive licensing agreement to manufacture, develop and commercialize Access' ProLindac and MuGard | JCOM will pay Access an undisclosed up-front fee and subsequent milestone payments along with a double-digit royalty on commercialization of ProLindac and MuGard (2/19) |
| Affimed Therapeutics AG* (Germany) | Bayer Schering Pharma AG (Germany) | Collaboration to identify and isolate new molecules binding to membrane-associated targets on tumor tissues, using its human antibody libraries | The collaboration also is with the German Cancer Research Center and other partners within the Molecular Imaging Technology Initiative (2/9) |
| Ambrx Inc.* | Merck Serono (Switzerland) | Collaboration focused on Ambrx's preclinical multiple sclerosis drug ARX424 | Ambrx will receive up-front cash and equity, milestone payments, royalties and a U.S. co- promote option (2/25) |
| Cenix BioScience GmbH* (Germany) | Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Germany) | Agreement for Cenix to provide its RNAi-based contract research services to support drug discovery efforts for Boehringer | Terms were not disclosed (2/2) |
| Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTC BB: CGXP) | Pediapharm Inc. | Distribution and supply agreement granting Pediapharm rights to commercialize EpiCeram in Canada | Financial terms were not disclosed (2/25) |
| Cyclogenix Ltd.* (Scotland) | Wyeth | License and research agreement for rights to its drug discovery technology platform for generating therapeutic peptides | Wyeth will fund the research activities and has the option to acquire all rights and ownership to the technologies from Cyclogenix at the end of the collaboration term (2/26) |
| Debiopharm Group* (Switzerland) | Pharmaleads SAS (France) | Exclusive license agreement for the development, registration and commercialization of a small molecule called Debio 0827 or PL37, which is about to enter Phase I for pain | Debiopharm will make an undisclosed up-front payment to Pharmaleads, as well as further payments as Pharmaleads reaches predefined development milestones (2/9) |
| DOR BioPharma Inc. (OTC BB:DORB) | Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc. | Partnership agreement for the development and commercialization in North America of orBec | The deal is worth $30M, including $6M up front and $10M in milestones; DOR also is entitled to a 35% royalty pursuant to DOR supplying the drug while maintaining worldwide manufacturing rights (2/12) |
| Dyax Corp. (DYAX) | Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA (France) | Exclusive license agreement for the development and commercialization of an ocular formulation of DX-88 for the treatment of retinal diseases | The license grants Fovea exclusive marketing rights for DX-88 in ophthalmic indications in the European Union (2/10) |
| Flamel Technologies SA (France; FLML) | Merck Serono (division of Merck KGaA; Germany) | Full license agreement to apply Flamel's Medusa technology for the extended release of an already-marketed therapeutic protein from Merck's portfolio | Merck will make a $6.3M payment to Flamel to exercise its option; Flamel will be eligible to receive milestone payments and Merck will fund all R&D efforts (2/17) |
| GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. (GTCB) | JCOM Co. Ltd. (North Korea) | Agreement to provide a license for the transgenic development of recombinant human insulin products in Asia | GTC will establish the cell lines and demonstrate production over the next 12 months; JCOM has an option for exclusive marketing rights in Asia; it will compensate GTC for successful development of the transgenic production system as well as a license fee, plus a royalty (2/23) |
| Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX) | GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) | Agreement giving GSK worldwide rights to IDX899 for HIV/AIDS | Idenix gets $34M up front and is eligible for up to $416M for development, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as double-digit, tiered worldwide royalties (2/6) |
| Implicit Bioscience Ltd.* (Australia) | Eli Lilly and Co. | Implicit acquired the clinical-stage monoclonal antibody IC14 from Lilly | Financial terms were not disclosed (2/25) |
| Insmed Inc. (INSM) | Merck & Co. Inc. | Agreement for Merck to buy Insmed's follow-on biologics pipeline | Merck has offered $130M for INS-19 and INS-20, which are expected to compete with Amgen Inc.'s Neupogen and Neulasta (2/12) |
| MDRNA Inc. (MRNA) | F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland) | Nonexclusive license agreement to a portion of MDRNA's technology platform for developing RNAi-based therapeutics | Financial terms were not disclosed (2/13) |
| NeuroSearch A/S (Denmark; CSE: NEUR) | Eli Lilly and Co. | Three-year central nervous system drug discovery alliance | NeuroSearch gets a $5M up-front payment, research funding up to $8M and an equity investment from Lilly worth about $17M, plus up to $320M in milestone payments and royalties on global product sales; the alliance is restricted to ion channels (2/17) |
| PDS Biotechnology Corp.* | Merck Eprova AG (Switzerland) | Exclusive license agreement to use Merck's chiral lipid DO-TAP Chloride in Versamune-HPV and other products in development based on the Versa-mune technology | PDS will own the intellectual property rights to products incorporating the chiral DOTAP lipids for immunotherapeutic applications (2/24) |
| Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc.* | Novartis AG (Switzerland) | Partnership for elinogrel, a P2Y12ADP receptor antagonist in Phase II testing for percutaneous coronary intervention | The deal is worth $575M, including a $75M up-front payment and $500M in milestones; Portola also is entitled to royalties (2/12) |
| ProBioGen AG* (Germany) | Sanofi Pasteur (France) | Research and option agreement for ProBioGen's AGE1.CR cell lines | The lines will be used for Sanofi's poxvectored vaccine products (2/3) |
| Response Genetics Inc. (RGDX) | F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland) | Nonexclusive license deal for the use of Roche's PCR analysis to assess human epidermal growth factor type 2 gene expression in cancer diagnostics | Financial terms were not disclosed (2/3) |
| Romark Laboratories LC* | Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Japan; part of the Roche Group) | Exclusive license agreement for the development and commercialization of nitazoxanide as a treatment of chronic hepatitis C in Japan | Chugai has paid an up-front payment to Romark and will make additional payments based on milestones; Romark will participate in profits through a supply agreement and royalties in Japan (2/18) |
| Sucampo Pharma Ltd. (unit of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc.; SCMP) | Abbott Japan Co. Ltd. | Partnership in Japan for Sucampo's bowel drug Amitiza | The deal provides Sucampo with an up-front payment of $10M, plus potential milestone payments (2/20) |
| MARCH 2009 | |||
| Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACAD) | Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd. (Japan) | Agreement giving Meiji Asian rights to its preclinical class of pro-cognitive anti-psychotics | Acadia receive an undisclosed up-front fee; the total deal is worth $25M, including milestones, plus royalties (3/25) |
| Alchemia Ltd. (Australia; ASX: ACL) | SDP Technology Ltd. (Australia) | Drug discovery agreement giving SDP exclusive rights to develop cancer drugs targeting the sphingosine kinase 1 enzyme using Alchemia's VAST chemistry platform | SDP will have access to the structural data from the initial screened compounds and be able to develop molecules using VAST (3/19) |
| Alloksys Life Sciences BV* (the Netherlands) | Cevec Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Germany) and PharmaCell BV (the Netherlands) | Companies started Theraptech, a joint therapeutic protein development program subsidized by the European Trans Bio Program | The goal is to develop a recombinant human alkaline phosphatase using the human CAP cell line useful in major chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (3/3) |
| Compugen Ltd. (Israel; CGEN) | Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel) | Teva exercised its option to use a combination of bio-markers discovered by Compugen for research activities aimed at early detection of drug-induced nephrotoxicity | Teva has a royalty-free right to use any discovered markers for internal research and development activities, while Compugen retains the commercialization rights for licensing such markers to other companies, as well as for internal use (3/24) |
| Dynamix Pharmaceuticals* (Israel) | Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel) | Collaboration and licensing agreement for the discovery and development of up to two Dynamix drug candidates | Dynamix would be eligible to earn milestones based on discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestones; the company also would receive tiered royalties (3/11) |
| Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. (ENDP) | Grunenthal GmbH (Germany) | Licensing agreement for exclusive rights to develop and market axomadol in the U.S. and Canada | Terms call for Endo to make an up-front cash payment, as well as additional milestone payments (3/2) |
| Epistem plc (UK; LSE:EHP) | Novartis AG (Switzerland) | Research and development agreement focused on products emerging from a collection of 266 gene targets | Novartis will pay $45M in milestones up to registration for each product; in addition to two years of R&D funding, Novartis is making a $4M up-front payment, and will pay tiered royalties on products that get to market (3/2) |
| Evotec AG (Germany; EVTC) | Roche Holding AG | Agreement to develop EVT101 for treatment-resistant depression and a next-generation version of the product | The deal is worth more than $300M, including an up-front payment of $10M and $65M if Roche opts to buy back the EVT100 series of compounds; milestone payments could reach $225M (3/9) |
| Gene Bridges GmbH* (Germany) | Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Japan) | Licensing agreement for the use of its Red/ET recombination technology | The technology is a method for generating targeting vectors or modifying E. coli chromosomes (3/25) |
| Lipoxen plc (UK; LSE:LPX) | Glide Pharma (UK) | Agreement to investigate the delivery of Lipoxen's long-acting insulin, SuliXen, a conjugate of insulin with polysialic acid, using the Glide SDI needle-free delivery system | Financial terms were not disclosed (3/19) |
| MannKind Corp. (MNKD) | Pfizer Inc. | Agreements to purchase Pfizer's insulin facility at Industriepark Hoechst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and assets related to the production of bulk insulin | The aggregate purchase price is $33M subject to certain adjustments; at Mann-Kind's option, up to $30M of the company's common stock may be issued to Pfizer at closing and applied to the full purchase price (3/9) |
| MDRNA Inc. (MRNA) | Novartis AG (Switzerland) | Licensing agreement for its gene-silencing siRNA delivery technology | Novartis is paying $7.25M up front for the license, and also gains an exclusive period in which to negotiate a separate research and development deal and possibly broader rights to the platform technology (3/23) |
| NanoViricides Inc. (OTC BB:NNVC) | Undisclosed pharmaceutical company | Material transfer agreement for the evaluation of one of its nanoviricide drug candidates | The candidate was designed to eradicate viral infections of the external eye (3/2) |
| Novavax Inc.* | Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (India) | Joint venture to develop, manufacture and market vaccine, pharmaceuticals and diagnostic products in India | The joint venture will develop and commercialize Novavax's seasonal influenza virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate and Cadila's therapeutic vaccine candidates against cancer as well as its adjuvants, biogeneric and biological diagnostic products for the Indian territory (3/31) |
| Proteon Therapeutics Inc.* | Novartis AG (Switzerland) | Agreement under which Novartis has the option to buy Proteon if all goes well with a Phase II study of PRT-201 | Novartis paid Proteon an undisclosed up-front payment in the potential $550M deal (3/5) |
| Provenance Biopharmaceuticals Corp.* | Merck Serono KGaA (Germany) | License agreement for DI-Leu16-IL2, a potential anticancer therapeutic | Provenance gained exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize DI-Leu16-IL2; Merck will receive an up-front payment, various milestone payments and royalties (3/18) |
| Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) | AEterna Zentaris Inc. | Licensing agreement for AEterna's lead product cetrorelix, a treatment for enlarged prostate glands | The deal is worth more than $165M; AEterna will get $30M up front and up to $135M in future milestones plus royalties (3/6) |
| Synosia Therapeutics* (Switzerland) | Roche AG (Switzerland) | Agreement for a new-generation 5-HT6 antagonist in Phase I cognitive disorders studies | The deal expands upon a 2007 agreement to develop compounds targeting central nervous system disorders; under the new agreement, Synosia gains full development and commercialization rights to all programs (3/10) |
| Xencor Inc.* | Pfizer Inc. | Technology license and evaluation deal to optimize the performance of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies | Pfizer will apply Xencor's Xtend antibody half-life prolongation technology and XmAb ADCC enhancing technology to its antibody candidates; Pfizer will make an up-front payment to Xencor and additional potential payments (3/2) |
| Xencor Inc.* | Merck & Co. Inc. | Exclusive license agreement for the use of its Xtend antibody half-life prolong-ation technology for use in developing antibodies against a specific, undisclosed target | Xencor will receive $3M up front, as well as a payment upon selection of an Xtend variant, clinical milestone payments and royalties (3/23) |
| APRIL 2009 | |||
| Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG* (Germany) | Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. (Japan) | Drug discovery collaboration agreement covering the use of Affectis' behavioral pharmacology expertise and technology | Affectis will receive research fees from MTPC, as well as development milestones (4/6) |
| Cardiome Pharma Corp. (Canada; CRME) | Merck & Co. Inc. | Agreement that gives Merck worldwide rights to oral vernakalant | Cardiome gets a $60M up-front payment, up to $200M in development and regulatory milestones and up to $340M in sales milestones, as well as tiered royalty payments (4/9) |
| Danisco BioActives (CSE:DCO) | Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc. | Partnering agreement to develop a biologic candidate aimed at preventing necrotizing enterocolitis | The companies will collaborate to develop STP-206, which is composed of live bacteria, with Sigma-Tau managing clinical and regulatory development (4/7) |
| Ensemble Discovery Corp.* | Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. | Partnership to discover and develop drugs that are designed to hit the chemical space between small molecules and large biologics | Ensemble agreed to handle discovery work using the Ensemblin technology against targets of interest to BMS in exchange for a $5M up-front payment and research payments totaling $7.5M; Ensemble can earn up to $29.5M in milestones per product for up to eight products (4/14) |
| EnVivo Pharmaceuticals* | Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. (Japan) | Agreement for development and commercialization of EVP-6124 in Japan and several other Asian countries | EnVivo will receive an initial license payment and is eligible for clinical and regulatory milestones, as well as several commercial milestones and royalties on sales; the territories includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and other Asian markets (4/1) |
| Galapagos NV (Brussels; BR:GLPG) | Merck & Co. Inc. | Multiyear drug development deal seeking therapies in inflammatory diseases | The deal could be worth more than $250M and includes an up-front fee of $3.2M from Merck, as well as up to $248M in milestone payments for multiple products, plus sales milestones and royalties upon commercialization (4/20) |
| HUYA Bioscience International* | Abbott | Agreement to identify and pursue preclinical and clinical drug candidates that originate in China | Abbott will gain access to HUYA's Chinese bioscience network; financial terms were not disclosed (4/21) |
| MDRNA Inc. (MRNA) | Par Pharmaceutical Inc. | Asset purchase agreement for Par to acquire MDRNA's manufacturing facilities in Hauppauge, N.Y., as well as the abbreviated new drug application for generic calcitonin-salmon nasal spray | MDRNA will receive up-front cash and double-digit profit-sharing on commercial sales of calcitonin; Par will assume MDRNA's supply and manufacturing obligations, as well as all operating costs associated with the facilities (4/1) |
| Medarex Inc. (MEDX) | Merck & Co. Inc. | Licensing agreement for a combination of monoclonal antibodies developed by Medarex and Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories | Medarex and MBL will split equally a $60M up-front payment and an additional $165M in cash based on milestones; Merck gains worldwide rights to develop and commercialize CDA-1 and CDB-1, designed to neutralize the effects of toxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium difficile (4/21) |
| Oxygen Bio-therapeutics Inc. (OTC BB: OXBO) | Hospira Inc.'s One 2 One Global Pharmaceutical Services business unit | Development and commercial supply agreement to manufacture clinical-grade Oxycyte | Oxycyte will be manufactured at Hospira's Clayton, N.C., facility, which specializes in emulsion technology (4/15) |
| Pfizer Inc.*** | GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) | Agreement to set up a new company to hold nearly all of the HIV assets of both firms, starting out with 17 medicines | The medicines include 11 marketed products; GSK will hold 85% of the company (4/16) |
| Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) | Les Laboratoires Servier (France) | Alliance giving Servier exclusive rights to develop and commercialize a Pan HDAC inhibitor product worldwide except for the U.S. | The product is PCI-24781 for solid tumors and hematological malignancies; Servier will pay $11M up front and $4M over 24 months, as well as $24.5M in milestone and royalties on non-U.S. sales (4/17) |
| Roche NimbleGen* (Switzerland) | Sigma-Aldrich Co. | Collaboration to further chromatin immunoprecipitation-on microarray research by aligning their two complementary technologies | The platforms enable researchers to study the entire genome for epigenetic interactions between DNA and DNA-binding proteins (4/21) |
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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.*** Pharmaceutical company deal included in this chart due to its relevance to the biotech industry. Unless otherwise noted, stock symbols listed are on the Nasdaq market.AMEX = American Stock Exchange; ASX = Australian Stock Exchange; BR = Brussels Stock Exchange; CSE = Copenhagen Stock Exchange; LSE = London Stock Exchange; NYSE = New York Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. | |||
