Pfizer Extends Research Collaboration With Ligand For JAK3

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has extended its research collaboration with Pfizer for JAK3 by one year. The research and license agreement entered with Wyeth provided for an initial three year research term. Under this extension with Pfizer, Ligand will receive $3.1m in research payments to continue conducting drug discovery and lead candidate optimization.

Under the original agreement, Ligand is entitled to receive up to $175m in milestone payments for the successful development and commercialization of multiple products. In addition, Ligand will receive royalties on product sales.

John Higgins, president and chief executive officer of Ligand, said: “We are very pleased to learn that Pfizer has elected to extend the JAK3 research collaboration with Ligand. We view JAK3 inhibitors as a very promising market opportunity, and given Pfizer’s clinical success with its own internal program. We are convinced that they are highly committed to this category.

“Ligand has an exceptional record of drug discovery while serving major pharmaceutical companies in a number of research collaborations. We are pleased with the team’s progress and look forward to continued success as we drive the program forward for Pfizer.”

JAK3 is a tyrosine kinase that belongs to the Janus family of enzymes, and is an important target for therapeutic interventions in the treatment of autoimmune disorders, inflammation, and organ transplant rejections. JAK3 expression seems to be limited to hematopoietic cells, and specific inhibitors of JAK3 could represent a new class of immunosuppressant drugs.