Amgen and AstraZeneca entered an agreement to jointly develop and commercialize five monoclonal antibodies from Amgen’s clinical inflammation portfolio: AMG 139, AMG 157, AMG 181, AMG 557 and brodalumab (AMG 827).

AZ will make a one-time $50 million upfront payment and the companies will share costs and profits. AZ will lead the development and commercial strategy for AMG 139, AMG 157 and AMG 181, while Amgen will lead brodalumab and AMG 557 development. Amgen will promote dermatology indications in the U.S. and Canada, and rheumatology indications in the U.S., Canada and Europe, while AZ will promote respiratory and, initially, dermatology indications of brodalumab across all territories outside the U.S. and Canada.

“We are delighted to join forces with Amgen in developing and commercializing these novel clinical-stage assets that add value to our pipeline and build on our expertise in biologics. This creative collaboration will make the most of both companies’ respective capabilities, including AstraZeneca’s extensive global reach, to help bring these potentially innovative treatment options for a variety of respiratory and inflammatory diseases to patients around the world,” said David Brennan, chief executive officer, AstraZeneca.

“We are very excited at the prospect of collaborating with a well-respected organization like AstraZeneca to advance our inflammation pipeline,” said Kevin Sharer, chairman and chief executive officer at Amgen. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to bring more therapies to patients sooner, across more geographic areas. We are impressed with AstraZeneca’s extensive experience in developing and launching products in the respiratory and gastroenterology areas, and believe this collaboration is an opportunity to work with a partner that has leading regulatory and commercial expertise in inflammation indications.”