AstraZeneca has just created a "blockbuster" by signing a drug deal worth up to $1 billion with U.S. biotech firm AtheroGenics Inc. on Thursday, as it stepped up efforts to restock a pipeline depleted by past product setbacks.
The alliance gives Europe's third biggest drug maker rights to AGI-1067, a novel pill in final Phase III tests that is designed to selectively block the inflammatory process in atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
AtheroGenics will get an upfront fee of $50 million, with the potential of an additional $300 million in regulatory and development milestones and a further $650 million depending on how much the product sells, assuming it gets to market.
The deal comes just two weeks after AstraZeneca licensed an experimental sepsis drug from Protherics Plc in a collaboration worth up to 195 million pounds ($338.7 million).
Like other "big pharma" companies, the group has been active in early research alliances but until now has done relatively few late-stage deals for drugs that have already passed through Phase II development.
But, Insider notes, their two Phase III products (Cerovive and Galida) are very high risk bets and may not make it to market.
Hence the "blockbuster" price paid for AGI-1067!
However, that assumes that the drug will work.
The drug's performance in midstage studies has been murky, mainly because of the design of those experiments. Last year, Atherogenics didn't release one much-awaiting midstage study until it had taken an unusual--and scientifically dubious--step. The company called in a second researcher to reanalyze the data. The first set of results didn't show a result in how much plaque built up in the arteries, but the second showed a clear benefit.
The unorthodox study preparation made some researchers skeptical. At the time, one researcher called the approach "not entirely kosher" (see: "Fuzzy Drug Company Math").
The one and only Eric Topol of the Cleveland Clinic wrote an opinion piece on the study for Forbes.com, saying, "Virtually every faux pas of clinical trials was committed" (see: "How Not To Do A Clinical Trial").
Insider cant wait to see how this one turns out!
Sources: Reuters and Forbes
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