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news.Acucela and Otsuka Pharmaceutical have signed a co-development and co-promotion agreement for OPA-6566, an adenosine A2a receptor agonist.
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Discovered by Otsuka Pharma, OPA-6566 is currently under development by Otsuka Pharma for the treatment of glaucoma, in the US.
As per the agreement, Otsuka Pharma will allow Acucela to perform early clinical development of OPA-6566 in the US and grant Acucela an opt-in right to co-develop and co-promote the compound.
After Acucela exercises the opt-in right, Otsuka Pharma and Acucela are expected to jointly develop the compound sharing the cost incurred and co-promote the resulted product in the US after regulatory approval.
Further, Acucela is expected to pay a certain amount of pre-determined opt-in fee and milestone payments to Otsuka Pharma.
The compound OPA-6566 is currently under preclinical study, with clinical development scheduled to begin next year.
Acucela chairman, president and CEO Ryo Kubota said that they are pleased to further strengthen partnership with Otsuka with this new agreement, which further broadens Acucela’s portfolio of potential eye treatments for patients with blinding eye diseases and represents an important step forward in our growth strategy.
Otsuka Pharma president Taro Iwamoto said that over the last few years, Acucela and Otsuka have built a strong strategic partnership to jointly pursue development efforts to deliver two ophthalmologic drugs to patients – Acucela-discovered ACU-4429, being developed for dry age-related macular degeneration, and Otsuka-discovered Rebamipide ophthalmic suspension, being developed for dry eye.