Date: 2017-03-31
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: CALY-001
Company: Calypso Biotech (Switzerland) EA Pharma (Japan)
Therapeutic area: Digestive diseases - Gastrointestinal diseases - Inflammatory diseases
Type agreement: licensing
Action mechanism: monoclonal antibody. CALY-001 is a novel, best-in-class fully human therapeutic antibody that uniquely binds to and neutralizes the active form of MMP-9 (Matrix metalloproteinase-9). is an extracellular matrix-degrading enzyme. In inflammatory bowel disease, MMP-9 is excessively expressed and activated within the inflamed gastrointestinal tissue. It is also associated with other pathologies including cancer, chronic inflammation and fibrotic diseases. MMP-9 is mostly secreted as inactive pro-enzyme, which is activated when cleaved by other proteinases.
Disease: inflammatory bowel disease
Details: • On March 31, 2017, Calypso Biotech announced that it has entered a global licensing and collaboration agreement with EA Pharma to develop CALY-001. This best-in-class anti-MMP-9 fully human monoclonal antibody is a potential novel treatment for indications such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), potentially capable of preventing disease complications. Under the agreement, Calypso Biotech will grant EA Pharma an exclusive and world-wide license for the development, manufacturing and marketing of CALY-001. Both companies will collaborate to develop CALY-001 for IBD. Calypso Biotech will receive an upfront, milestone and royalty payments from EA Pharma. Staatz Business Development & Strategy acted as transaction advisor to Calypso Biotech. EA Pharma is a gastrointestinal specialty pharma. The company was inaugurated in April 2016 by integration of the Eisai Group’s gastrointestinal business unit and the Ajinomoto Group’s gastrointestinal business unit centered on amino acids.
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