The agreement provides an opportunity for Baxter to exclusively develop a new recombinant protein and investigate its potential use in treating unmet medical needs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Kaketsuken will provide Baxter with access to Kaketsuken’s intellectual property rights concerning the recombinant protein. Baxter has an exclusive license to the recombinant ADAMTS13 intellectual property rights worldwide, except for Japan where Baxter has a co-exclusive license to commercialize recombinant ADAMTS13 with Kaketsuken.
In addition to an upfront payment upon signing the agreement, Baxter will pay Kaketsuken milestone payments upon investigational new drug (IND) filing, initiation of Phase II and Phase III trials, biologics license application (BLA) filings and FDA approval of recombinant ADAMTS13.
Hartmut Ehrlich, vice president of global research and development for Baxter’s bioscience business, said: “We are very excited to add recombinant ADAMTS13 to our development pipeline. Elucidating the role of recombinant ADAMTS13 in TTP and other blood-clotting disorders might provide us with a new treatment modality for thrombotic diseases, which is a substantial addition to our R&D pipeline.”