Dive Brief:
- Alexion Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday announced collaborations with Affibody and Zealand Pharma, potentially gaining rights to as many as five experimental therapies.
- The Affibody deal gives Alexion access to ABY-039, a therapy for rare Immunoglobulin G-mediated autoimmune diseases that’s currently in Phase 1 testing.
- As part of the Zealand agreement, Alexion will lead clinical development of a peptide therapy candidate now in the preclinical stage. The company also gains options for as many as three other targets to treat complement-mediated diseases, a core focus for the rare disease biotech.
Dive Insight:
The deals are part of Alexion’s push to expand its pipeline and grow beyond its blockbuster blood disorder treatment, Soliris (eculizumab). That drug brought in $3.6 billion last year, roughly 85% of the company's total product sales.
Wednesday's agreements follow a flurry of activity last year for Alexion. In the fourth quarter, the company bought Syntimmune in a potentially $1.2 billion deal, about six months after agreeing to pay $855 million to acquire Wilson Therapeutics. Alexion also inked smaller partnerships with Complement Pharma and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals to gain access to early-stage therapies.
As part of the latest deal, Alexion will pay $25 million upfront to Affibody and lines up as much as $625 million in future milestone and royalty payments, Alexion said. Affibody retains the option to co-promote ABY-039 and will lead development of the therapy for an undisclosed indication.
The anti-FcRN medicine has the potential to become a “convenient self-administered treatment option,” said John Orloff, Alexion's R&D head, in a statement. It will become the second clinical-stage medicine in the class for Alexion, after the company acquired SYNT001 in the Syntimmune transaction.
In its deal with Zealand, Alexion agreed to invest $15 million in the Danish drugmaker and pay $25 million upfront for rights to the first treatment candidate. Zealand also stands to receive as much as $115 million in development milestone payments and as much as $495 million in sales milestones, plus royalties.
The three other targets in the Zealand deal would come with potential for further milestone payments and each carries a $15 million option fee, Alexion said.