06.17.10
Bayer Schering Pharma and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals entered into a global strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialize anti-cancer stem cell therapeutics targeting the Wnt signaling pathway. Cancer stem cells are believed to play a significant role in the metastasis and recurrence of cancer and agents targeting the Wnt pathway have the potential to be developed as pan-tumor drugs.
The two companies will share technology and experience to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of the pathway. Bayer has the option to exclusively license antibody and protein therapeutic product candidates up to the completion of Phase I. OncoMed will receive an upfront payment of $40 million and is eligible to receive payments for product candidates selected by Bayer and additional payments based on certain development and commercialization milestones. The collaboration could potentially include as many as five compounds. For each drug candidate successfully developed through Phase III and regulatory approval, OncoMed's payments could total as much as $387.5 million for biotherapeutic drugs and $112 million for small molecule drugs, per program.
"At Bayer, we recognize the high unmet medical need for cancer treatments. This collaboration with OncoMed demonstrates our commitment to developing new and innovative treatment options," said Andreas Busch, head of Global Drug Discovery and member of the board of management at Bayer. "The development of anti-cancer stem cell therapeutics together with OncoMed is a highly innovative approach with the potential to perfectly complement our oncology portfolio. Anti-cancer stem cell research could turn out as one of the missing pieces in today's cancer therapy."
The two companies will share technology and experience to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of the pathway. Bayer has the option to exclusively license antibody and protein therapeutic product candidates up to the completion of Phase I. OncoMed will receive an upfront payment of $40 million and is eligible to receive payments for product candidates selected by Bayer and additional payments based on certain development and commercialization milestones. The collaboration could potentially include as many as five compounds. For each drug candidate successfully developed through Phase III and regulatory approval, OncoMed's payments could total as much as $387.5 million for biotherapeutic drugs and $112 million for small molecule drugs, per program.
"At Bayer, we recognize the high unmet medical need for cancer treatments. This collaboration with OncoMed demonstrates our commitment to developing new and innovative treatment options," said Andreas Busch, head of Global Drug Discovery and member of the board of management at Bayer. "The development of anti-cancer stem cell therapeutics together with OncoMed is a highly innovative approach with the potential to perfectly complement our oncology portfolio. Anti-cancer stem cell research could turn out as one of the missing pieces in today's cancer therapy."