Phylogica enters peptide agreement with Janssen Biotech

Published: 4-Jan-2012

To identify cell-penetrating Phylomer peptides


Phylogica, an Australian drug discovery company, has entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson of the US, to discover new classes of drugs derived from Phylogica’s Phylomer peptide platform.

In the initial stage of the alliance, Phylogica will identify cell-penetrating Phylomer peptides. Janssen has the option to expand the scope of the collaboration to include additional cell-specific Phylomers for the development of another ten drug candidates.

Phylogica will receive an initial technology access fee as well as research funding over the first 18 months of the agreement.

Pending ongoing discussions on commercial terms, Phylogica could receive further research funding, licence fees, milestone payments and royalties on worldwide sales.

Phylogica’s chief executive Dr Paul Watt said the deal reflected the company’s commitment to exploit the potential of Phylomers to address challenging disease targets.

With the addition of Janssen, Phylogica has signed deals with four of the top five global pharmaceutical companies. The collaboration with MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, has recently advanced to the final stage of the research plan and last December the firm reported the successful completion of the first stage of its collaboration with Pfizer.

These milestones followed Phylogica’s announcement earlier in 2011 that it had successfully achieved the objectives in its research alliance with Roche.

For the three months ending 31 December 2011, Phylogica reported revenue of approximately AU$1.3m from its commercial deals. A share placement last December raised new capital of AU$2.15m, which will be used to support further investment in the Phylomer drug discovery platform.

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