Date: 2015-11-19
Type of information: Development agreement
Compound: human plasma-derived Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins
Company: ProMetic Life Sciences (Canada) ProThera Biologics (USA - RI)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases
Type agreement: development
Action mechanism: protein. Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins (IAIP) are a family of naturally occurring proteins found in high concentration in human plasma and play an important role in the regulation of host immune response. Research shows that IAIP play a key role in fighting acute inflammatory diseases including whole-body inflammation due to infection, trauma or injury. IAIP exert their effects through multiple anti-inflammatory pathways, but importantly they function by binding to, and neutralizing, the toxic effects of extracellular histones released from dying cells. There is now a broad and growing recognition that IAIP are one of the body’s first lines of defense against severe inflammation and they serve as important immunomodulators. IAIP treatment has been shown to be effective in many pre-clinical models of acute inflammatory disease and decreased IAIP levels in patients correlate with increased morbidity and mortality for multiple diseases.
Disease:
Details: * On November 19, 2015, ProMetic Life Sciences announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with ProThera Biologics for the development and commercialization of human plasma-derived Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins. The agreements provide ProMetic with global, exclusive intellectual property rights to commercialize products for two clinical indications and both companies have strategic interest in the other’s IAIP-related therapeutic areas through a royalty- bearing cross-license agreement. Under the terms of the deal, ProMetic and ProThera each will perform development services in order to advance IAIP to the clinic by 2017. ProMetic has received an initial 11.25 % equity stake in ProThera and such equity position to be increased to 22.5% following the achievement of an early-stage development milestone. Further, ProMetic will exclusively manufacture IAIP for clinical trial requirements and commercial sales for all indications. ProThera Biologics is pioneering the development of highly innovative products based on Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins (IAIP) for the treatment and detection of severe inflammatory diseases. The company has developed a novel process to purify Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins from human plasma, and has conducted ground-breaking research into the usage of IAIP to fight acute inflammation across multiple indication areas. Replenishing IAIP to treat acute inflammation is the basis for ProThera Biologics’ biotherapeutic and monitoring the levels of IAIP to assess a patient’s immune status is the basis for ProThera’s diagnostic tests.
Financial terms:
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