Date: 2015-02-13
Type of information: Termination of an agreement
Compound: medicines to treat neurological disorders
Company: Saniona (Denmark) Janssen R&D, a J&J company (USA - NJ)
Therapeutic area: Neurological diseases - CNS diseases
Type agreement: development
Action mechanism:
Disease: neurological disorders
Details: * On August 27, 2014, Saniona, a leading biotech company in the field of ion channels, announced that Saniona and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV have extended their ongoing drug discovery and development collaboration with an extended 12-month collaborative agreement. The collaboration focuses on research of medicines to treat neurological disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, Janssen has an option to obtain exclusive worldwide rights to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize medicines identified through the collaboration.
The collaboration with Janssen started in 2009. It was transferred in connection with Saniona’s buyout of parts of NeuroSearch’s research in 2012. In 2013, Saniona and Janssen extended the collaboration with an additional twelve months to August 2014, and the new agreement extends the collaboration to August 2015.
The collaboration with Janssen is one of three that Saniona has with global pharmaceutical companies, the others are with Pfizer and Ataxion, which is a joint venture with Atlas Ventures and Biogen Idec.
Financial terms: Under the terms of the agreement, Saniona is eligible to receive up to a total of €45 million in milestone paymentsupon the achievement of certain research and development milestones and further €30 million in commercial milestones as well as royalties on any potential products developed and commercialized by Janssen as a result of this collaboration.
Latest news: * On February 13, 2015, Saniona announced that Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and Saniona will terminate the collaboration on the GABAa5 program. Saniona regains all rights to the program including an exclusive license to the data from pre-clinical studies conducted by Janssen. Saniona and Janssen have generated a broad data package supporting the potential of the lead compound AN470 for development in specific central nervous system disorders. However, Janssen determined that the project was not aligned with its current Neuroscience portfolio. Therefore, Saniona will now pursue this opportunity internally and together with potential new partners. AN470 is a potent and highly selective modulator of GABAa5 and may fulfil the basic criteria of a drugable candidate. However, Janssen determined that the product was not aligned with its current Neuroscience portfolio. Saniona regains all rights to its GABAa5 program and the lead compound AN470. Saniona intends to develop AN470 as a first in class treatment option for schizophrenia with a potentially better efficacy and side effect profile than current antipsychotic therapies hereunder in particular in relation to treatment of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Saniona has generated a broad data package supporting the potential of the lead compound AN470 for development in this indication. The regain of the rights to the GABAa5 program will not have any material impact on Saniona’s financial projections for 2015 since the budget is not subject to potential milestone payments from this program. Furthermore, this will not have any impact the development plans for other programs in the Saniona pipeline.
