Agreements

Date: 2017-07-27

Type of information: Termination of an agreement

Compound: messenger RNA Therapeutics™

Company: Moderna Therapeutics (USA - MA) Alexion Pharmaceuticals (USA - CT)

Therapeutic area: Rare diseases

Type agreement: development

Action mechanism: Messenger RNA (mRNA).

Disease:

Details:

• On January 13, 2014, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Moderna Therapeutics announced an exclusive strategic agreement for the discovery and development of messenger RNA Therapeutics™ to treat rare diseases. Alexion will lead the discovery, development and commercialization of the treatments produced through this broad, long-term strategic agreement, while Moderna will retain responsibility for the design and manufacture of the messenger RNA against selected targets. Following option exercise by Alexion, Moderna will be entitled to drug development and commercial milestone payments, as well as high single to double digit royalties on commercial sales.

Financial terms:

Under the agreement, Alexion will make an upfront payment to Moderna of $100 million to purchase 10 product options to develop and commercialize treatments for rare diseases with Moderna’s mRNA Therapeutics™ platform. In addition, Alexion has made a $25 million preferred equity investment into Moderna.

Latest news:

• On July 27, 2017, Alexion Pharmaceuticals announced that the company is redefining its R&D strategy to create greater efficiency and focus on its expertise in complement biology and core therapeutic areas of hematology, nephrology, neurology, and metabolic disorders. To optimize and align R&D investments and development efforts with the Company's redefined strategy, Alexion is de-prioritizing the ALXN1101 (cPMP replacement therapy) and ALXN6000 (samalizumab) clinical development programs and will seek to out-license these assets. Alexion is also discontinuing its preclinical programs with mRNA therapies as well as other preclinical programs that are outside of the complement franchise, and is therefore terminating its partnerships with Moderna Therapeutics, Blueprint Medicines and Arbutus Biopharma.