Verus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. sold its pediatric asthma development programs to AstraZeneca. This includes the North American rights to a Captisol enabled budesonide solution (controller medication), a short-acting beta agonist solution (rescue medication), a customized version of eFlow (novel nebulizer delivery device) for use with both medications, and other intellectual property and related assets from Verus.

Under the terms of the agreement, Verus will receive an upfront payment of $30 million, development expense reimbursements, and a potential earn-out payment of $280 million.

"We are excited to have completed this transaction with AstraZeneca, the North American leader in pediatric asthma treatment innovation, and are eager to collaborate with them to address the multiple unmet medical needs in this rapidly expanding patient population," said Robert W. Keith, president and chief operating officer of Verus. "This transaction allows us to refocus our time and resources on our other emerging development programs, including those targeting unmet needs associated with related atopic diseases and conditions."

"AstraZeneca is proud to be a part of these next generation development programs that hold the potential to help millions of children suffering from asthma and may positively impact their quality of life," said Jim Helm, vice president respiratory primary care at AstraZeneca.

Array BioPharma and Celgene Corp. entered a strategic R&D collaboration focused on novel therapeutics in cancer and inflammation. Under the agreement, Array will receive an upfront payment of $40 million and will grant Celgene an option to select two of four mutually selected discovery targets developed under the collaboration. Array will be responsible for all discovery and clinical development through Phase I or Phase IIa. Celgene will then have the option to select drugs resulting from two of the four programs and will receive exclusive worldwide rights to those drugs, except for Array's limited co-promotional rights in the U.S.

Array is also entitled to receive milestone payments of approximately $200 million, if certain discovery, development and regulatory milestones are met and $300 million if certain commercial milestones are achieved, as well as royalties on sales. Array will retain all rights to the other programs.

"We are very pleased to collaborate with Celgene on the discovery and development of novel targeted drugs," said Kevin Koch, Ph.D., president and chief scientific officer, Array BioPharma. "With Celgene's global leadership and expertise in discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies, and Array's solid track record of inventing and progressing targeted drugs into clinical development, we are forming a strong alliance to bring new therapies to patients."

"This collaboration with Array BioPharma is a strategic opportunity for Celgene to work with a demonstrated leader in the discovery and early development of small molecule drugs. Our collaboration illustrates Celgene's commitment to address unmet medical need in cancer and immune-inflammatory disease, while maximizing our clinical, regulatory and commercial potential worldwide," said Tom Daniel, M.D., Celgene's president of research.

Pfizer received approval from the European Commission (EC) for Celsentri (maraviroc) for treatment-experienced HIV patients. Maraviroc, in combination with other antiretroviral medicinal products, is indicated for treatment-experienced adult patients infected with only CCR5-tropic HIV-1 virus detectable.

Maraviroc is the first of a new class of oral HIV medicines that works by blocking viral entry into human cells rather than fighting HIV inside white blood cells. Maraviroc prevents the virus from entering white blood cells by blocking its predominant entry route, the CCR5 co-receptor.

The approval is based on the following data from two ongoing double-blind, placebo-controlled trials that show: Maraviroc and optimized background therapy (OBT) provided greater viral load reduction compared to patients receiving OBT alone; twice as many patients receiving maraviroc plus OBT achieved undetectable viral load at 48 weeks; and the maraviroc and OBT group demonstrated greater increases in CD4 white cells compared to the group receiving OBT alone.

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