Amgen to Help Develop Novartis's Pipeline of Alzheimer's Drugs
September 02 2015 - 2:00AM
Dow Jones News
Novartis AG will share the risks and rewards as Amgen Inc. will
help develop its pipeline of experimental Alzheimer's disease
drugs, in a move that is becoming increasingly commonplace among
drug makers eager to address the difficult-to-treat condition.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said Amgen would pay an upfront
fee, followed by milestone payments, for the right to co-develop
Novartis's Alzheimer's pipeline. It said Amgen also would pay the
majority of research-and-development costs for the program "for an
agreed-upon period," after which the pair would split costs and
profit equally. Novartis declined to provide specific figures.
In a similar deal last year between AstraZeneca PLC and Eli
Lilly & Co., the U.S. company agreed to pay up to $500 million
in milestone payments to co-develop an Alzheimer's drug in Astra's
pipeline. Japan's Eisai Co. last year also struck a deal with
Biogen Idec to share the R&D costs of two midstage Alzheimer's
drugs in its pipeline.
All these deals center on so-called BACE inhibitors, a hot new
class of drugs the industry hopes could prevent the onset of
Alzheimer's by preventing the buildup of a protein known as amyloid
in the brain, thought to be the main cause of the degenerative
neurological disease.
Vas Narasimhan, global head of development at Novartis
Pharmaceuticals, said the company's own BACE inhibitor, called
CNP520, formed the "basis of the deal" with Amgen. The Swiss
company hasn't yet published any clinical data on the drug, which
is in early-stage testing in humans.
The deal "allows us to share risk on the Alzheimer's program,"
Dr. Narasimhan said. "While there's a tremendous unmet
need…clinical trials are long, endpoints are still unknown and
mechanisms underlying the disease are still something we're all
trying to work out."
Novartis has one other Alzheimer's drug in clinical development,
and both companies also have early-stage BACE inhibitors that
haven't yet been tested in humans.
BACE inhibitors are the latest glimmer of hope in a field dogged
by failures, but they too could stumble in later-stage development.
Eli Lilly scrapped a BACE inhibitor, LY2886721, in 2013 over
concerns that the drug could affect liver function. Research
released by the trade group Pharmaceutical Research &
Manufacturers of America in 2012 showed there had been 101
Alzheimer's drug failures in the previous 13 years.
An estimated 5.3 million Americans suffer from the disease,
according to the Alzheimer's Association, a nonprofit organization.
Current treatments can help manage symptoms, but there is no cure.
The market for Alzheimer's drugs stood at $4.9 billion in 2013 and
is expected to reach $13.3 billion by 2023, according to
GlobalData, a research and consulting firm.
The deal with Amgen also involves Novartis gaining access to the
Thousand Oaks, Calif., biotechnology company's pipeline of migraine
drugs. Novartis said that in return for global co-development
rights and commercial rights outside the U.S., Canada and Japan, it
would fund the majority of R&D costs of the migraine program
for a set period, as well as pay Amgen double-digit royalties on
sales. Amgen's leading migraine drug, called AMG 334, is in Phase 3
trials.
Dr. Narasimhan said the two-way deal means Novartis is using the
"same amount of R&D dollars but now invested over two
portfolios of products. That was the spirit with which we entered
this deal."
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2015 01:45 ET (05:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024