Roche acquires rights to Antisoma's cancer drug candidates

Roche has formed a broad strategic alliance with UK-based biopharmaceutical company Antisoma, which grants Roche exclusive worldwide rights to the Antisoma pipeline of oncology products.

Agents covered by the five-year agreement include Pemtumomab, which is already in Phase III development for ovarian cancer and could be the subject of product license applications in 2004.

Also included are three other oncology compounds, Therex, TheraFab and DMXAA, which are currently in Phase I clinical trials. Roche will also have rights to opt in to preclinical programmes that advance into clinical trials during a five-year period. Antisoma will be responsible for advancing new oncology compounds into clinical development.

Roche will initially pay £4.15m (US$6.56m) to acquire new Antisoma shares equivalent to just under 10% of the current share capital and make a cash payment to gain access to the existing Antisoma portfolio. Roche will also provide Antisoma with further access, development and milestone and commercial payments based on compounds successfully reaching critical stages.

Payments to Antisoma could exceed $500 million if all existing pipeline products were successfully launched. In addition, Antisoma will receive royalties on product sales. Roche will cover, in full, the remaining development costs of Pemtumomab and Therex.

'This is a ground-breaking agreement for the European biotechnology industry,' said Glyn Edwards, ceo of Antisoma. 'The commitment by Roche will enable us to bring our portfolio of oncology products to market in the broadest range of indications and the fastest possible time.'

Roche's oncology franchise includes three drugs with proven survival benefit: MabThera (ritixumab), Xeloda (capecitabine), and Herceptin (trastuzumab). It also includes NeoRecormon (epoetin beta), Roferon-A (interferon alfa-2a), Neupogen (filgrastim) and Kytril (granisetron HCl). It has four research sites (two in the US, Germany and Japan) and five development sites (two in the US, UK, Switzerland and Japan).