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The DDR: Market news and trends - Posted: January 2008
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Market news and trends - Posted: January 2008 |
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In the months of October, November and December 2007, almost 100 (92) drug delivery deals were recorded in PharmaDeals® Agreements. Nearly half of these deals took place in October (41), with 23 and 28 signed in November and December, respectively.
A financially substantial alliance that took place in October was a licensing deal between XenoPort and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialisation of the preclinical-stage product XP21510 (Deal no. 28641). XP21510 originated from XenoPort and is for the potential treatment of women diagnosed with menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding). It is a transported prodrug of tranexamic acid, and is designed to use the body’s natural mechanisms for actively transporting nutrients through the gastrointestinal tract to enhance the delivery of tranexamic acid into the bloodstream after oral administration. The terms of the agreement grant Xanodyne exclusive rights for the development and commercialisation of XP21510 in the US. Xanodyne will pay XenoPort upfront payments totalling US$12 M, as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestones. The deal was valued at US$147 M in total.
Another high-value licensing deal took place in December 2007, when Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings gained the rights for Alexza Pharmaceuticals’ Phase I AZ-003 (Staccato® fentanyl), a hand-held drug delivery device system (Deal no. 29258). AZ-003 uses Alexza’s Staccato® inhalation technology to deliver fentanyl for the treatment of breakthrough pain in cancer and non-cancer patients. The agreement entitles Alexza to an upfront and milestone payments, as well as royalties. The deal is valued at US$50 M.
The most prominent drug delivery deal type over this 3-month period was licensing (35), followed by co-development (ten). In November, there was a co-development deal between IntelGenx and Cary Pharmaceuticals for the development of Cary’s oral antidepressant, CpI-300, using IntelGenx’s oral delivery technology (Deal no. 28877). IntelGenx will provide funding and development support for CPI-300, and will also be entitled to profit sharing. IntelGenx’s drug delivery technologies include a Tri-Layer Tablet and a Quick Release Wafer, both of which are oral, and provide controlled drug release of a given active ingredient.
There was one manufacturing and supply agreement during this period: in November, between the US speciality pharma company Akorn, and Cipla, a Mumbai, India-based pharmaceutical company (Deal no. 29090). The agreement specifies that Cipla develops, manufactures and supplies the inhaled drug product, and the deal involves development milestone payments payable to Cipla. Akorn will be responsible for the regulatory submission with the US FDA and for marketing and distribution of the drug product in the US and Puerto Rico.
Three contract research agreements took place during the 3-month period under review. One of these was awarded to Nanotherapeutics by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), both of the US NIH (Deal no. 28627). The contract, worth US$20 M, is for the development of an inhaled version of the injectable drug gentamicin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic for a first-line therapy for pneumonic plague and tularaemia, which are Category A bioterrorism agents. NanoGENT™ has been developed as a dry-powder formulation of gentamycin.
Of the five technology access deals that took place during this period, one was an agreement signed in December between Flamel Technologies and Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA (Deal no. 29334). The agreement is specific to studying the application of Flamel’s Medusa® technology to one of Merck Serono’s therapeutic proteins. Medusa® enables the extended release of therapeutic proteins, and is a carrier consisting of a self-assembled poly-amino acid nanoparticle system, which allows the controlled delivery of fully human, non-denatured proteins with full bioactivity. |
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