Sanofi-aventis to collaborate with Avila Therapeutics
To discover and develop covalent drugs for the treatment of cancers
French drugmaker Sanofi-aventis has signed a deal with Avila Therapeutics of the US to discover and develop covalent drugs for the treatment of cancers.
Sanofi-aventis will work with Avila to design covalent drugs directed towards six signalling proteins that are critical in tumour cells. The firm will have access to Avila’s proprietary Avilomics technology that is said to offer a unique approach to ‘protein silencing’ that cannot be achieved through traditional medicinal chemistry.
Covalent drugs are said to form a much stronger and longer-lasting bond than the temporary ‘binding’ achieved by conventional drugs and therefore have the ability to completely silence disease-causing proteins.
‘Avila Therapeutics’ expertise in designing targeted covalent drugs offers a new way to solve difficult pharmacological challenges in oncology and to address important cancer targets,’ said Debasish Roychowdhury, senior vice president and head of oncology at sanofi-aventis.
Avila has the opportunity to retain the rights to one of the six collaboration programmes after the end of the initial three-year partnership and sanofi-aventis retains a right of first negotiation for such a programme should Avila decide to seek a partner for that programme.
The US group will receive up to US$40m in upfront and research support payments, as well as pre-clinical, clinical and regulatory milestone payments of up to $154m for each collaboration programme if the product is approved in the US, Europe and Japan.
Avila could also receive staged royalties and commercial milestones on product sales in each of the programmes.
‘This partnership directs the combination of our broadly relevant Avilomics platform and sanofi-aventis’ oncology insights towards the goal of delivering best-in-class medicines for patients who are fighting serious diseases,’ said Katrine Bosley, chief executive of Avila Therapeutics.
