Last week saw a couple of interesting deals by European-based Big Pharma--including Sanofi Aventis' very nationally-focused academic tie-up--small dollars, but high symbolism, perhaps--and AstraZeneca's latest upfront-cash-heavy in-licensing deal with Rigel for a Phase II oral RA candidate.
Sanofi/AVIESAN: Sanofi Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher might already have helped shed the Big Pharma's previous reputation for being inward-looking and somewhat Franco-French in its orientation, but he's certainly not missing out on local opportunities as he pursues this more externalized approach. On Feb. 18, the company announced a research partnership with the French Life Sciences and Healthcare Alliance (AVIESAN), which groups together all the major health care players in the French academic research community, and agreed to sponsor a young researchers' support program.
Sanofi says it will invest €50 million into these partnerships over the next five years. It's all good stuff - enhancing life sciences knowledge, contributing to (and showing off) France's strong position in the field, and developing projects in areas including aging and infectious disease that can directly benefit patients. But as well as keeping the French government happy (the Strategic Committee for Healthcare Industries has outlined plans to bolster funding for more tie-ups between academia and industry), it also buffs up Sanofi's curriculum vitae by positioning the group as a friendly, sharing supporter of national public research.
AstraZeneca/Rigel: AZ is building itself a bit of a reputation for forking out good upfront cash for mid-stage in-licensed assets: on Feb. 16, it signed its third deal in just five months with an upfront cash payment of $100 million or more. This time, Rigel was the lucky recipient, granting the Big Pharma worldwide rights to its Phase II oral rheumatoid arthritis candidate fostamatinib and in exchange banking over $1 billion in potential development and sales milestones as well.
Now sure, AZ has little choice but to win such valuable booty - fostamatinib could be among the front-runner oral drugs in a multi-billion dollar market - given the heavier-than-average near-term patent expiry burden the company faces. That's why it paid Nektar $120 million upfront for a Phase II opioid-induced constipation candidate in September, and Targacept a record-breaking $200 million for a Phase II depression-busting nicotine channel blocker in December.
In the deal, AZ will cover all future development costs. The milestone payment split is up to $345 million during development, regulatory and first-commercial-sale and up to a further $800 million in sales-related payments (Rigel is expecting a further $25 million in milestones this year). AZ also will pay "significant" stepped double-digit royalties on net sales worldwide.
-By Melanie Senior (m.senior@elsevier.com)
This article first appeared in The IN VIVO Blog, which you can access here—or sign up for the IN VIVO Blog RSS feed here.
