Date: 2014-05-14
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound:
Company: Ligand Pharmaceuticals (USA - CA) Omthera Pharmaceuticals (USA - NJ), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca (UK)
Therapeutic area: Metabolic diseases
Type agreement: R&D licensing
Action mechanism:
Disease: dyslipidemia, including hypertriglyceridemia
Details: * On May 14, 2014, Ligand Pharmaceuticals announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement and research collaboration with Omthera Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, for the development of products to treat dyslipidemia, including hypertriglyceridemia. The research collaboration will target the development of novel products that utilize the proprietary Ligand-developed LTP Technology™ to improve lipid-lowering activity of certain omega-3 fatty acids. This technology is a broadened novel prodrug technology platform designed to selectively deliver a range of active pharmaceutical agents to the liver. It works by chemically modifying a biologically active molecule into an inactive prodrug form that will be administered and later activated in the liver by certain enzymes mainly expressed in the liver. The technology can be used to improve activity and/or safety of an existing drug or to develop new agents to treat liver diseases or diseases caused by homeostasis imbalance of circulating biomolecules controlled by the liver such as lipids and glucose, and is especially applicable to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Ligand’s LTP technology has expanded chemical class applicability and also removes certain by-products as compared to other targeting technologies.
Financial terms: Under the terms of the agreement, Ligand will be eligible to receive payments of up to $44.5 million upon the achievement of specific milestones, as well as tiered royalties ranging from mid to high single digits of net sales. Omthera is solely responsible for all research and clinical development costs as well as commercialization of any product(s) derived from this collaboration.
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