Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has signed a global collaboration and license agreement with Horizon Therapeutics for the development of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic, ARO-XDH.
ARO-XDH is a discovery-stage investigational RNAi therapeutic, which is being developed by Arrowhead, targeting xanthine dehydrogenase as a potential treatment for people with uncontrolled gout.
Under the deal, Horizon will make an upfront payment of $40m to Arrowhead, which is also eligible to receive up to $660m in potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.
Additionally, Arrowhead is eligible to receive royalties based on the net product sales.
Horizon Therapeutics chairman, president and CEO Tim Walbert said: “As a commercial and clinical leader in gout, we understand the disease and its impact, and that there is still a tremendous unmet treatment need.
“The collaboration with Arrowhead adds an additional program to our research and development focus to discover and develop new, innovative medicines that continue to improve gout treatment across the continuum of care.”
As per the terms of the agreement, Arrowhead will be responsible for handling all activities of short interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutic’s preclinical stages of development.
Meanwhile, Horizon will receive a worldwide exclusive license and will be responsible for clinical development and commercialisation of the investigational therapeutic that targets xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH).
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Christopher Anzalone said: “We believe Horizon’s expertise in the clinical development and commercialisation of therapies for gout makes them an ideal partner.
“This collaboration with Horizon also represents further expansion of our rapidly growing pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics that utilize Arrowhead’s proprietary Targeted RNAi Molecule (TRiM) platform.”
Over nine million gout patients and about a third of them in the US are treated with oral urate-lowering therapies.