Date: 2015-09-07
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: DEP® drug delivery platform
Company: AstraZeneca (UK) Starpharma (Australia)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Technology - Services
Type agreement: licensing
Action mechanism: Starpharma’s DEP® technology is used to improve the performance of pharmaceuticals. Both pre-clinical and early clinical data have shown DEP® versions of drugs to be superior in a variety of ways to the unmodified drugs in currently marketed formulations. Pre-clinical studies of DEP® conjugates with a number of different cancer drugs have already established improved efficacy and reduced toxicities compared to marketed versions.
Disease:
Details: * On September 7, 2015, Starpharma announced the signing of a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca. The agreement enables the development and commercialisation by AstraZeneca of compounds directed at a defined family of targets using Starpharma’s DEP® drug delivery technology. The DEP® platform centres on use of Starpharma’s proprietary dendrimers, with the aim of enhancing the dosing and efficacy characteristics of pharmaceuticals. The platform is used to improve the performance of pharmaceuticals and has been applied to unmodified drugs in currently marketed formulations. Starpharma’s licensing agreement with AstraZeneca focuses on novel compounds.
Financial terms: Under the agreement Starpharma is eligible to receive signature and milestone payments on one or more AstraZeneca DEP® products if they progress through the development pipeline, and milestone and royalty payments on any net sales of the resultant products. AstraZeneca will fund all development and commercialisation costs under the agreement, including ongoing and future collaborative work conducted with Starpharma. A signature payment of US$2 million (A$2.9 million) became payable on execution of the agreement. For the initial product, development and launch milestones could total up to US$64 million (A$91 million), and sales milestones based on specified annual sales levels could total up to US$60 million (A$86 million). The license agreement allows for additional products to be incorporated, with development and regulatory milestone payments of up to US$53.3 million (A$76 million), and potential sales milestones based on specified annual sales levels for qualifying additional products could total up to US$40 million (A$57 million). Any AstraZeneca DEP® products would also attract tiered royalties on net sales.
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