The partnership will see compounds from the retinal disease pipeline portfolio of Boehringer Ingelheim combined with the intravitreal (IVT) drug delivery technologies of Inflammasome.
Inflammasome’s technology will be used by the collaboration to deliver therapeutics in a biodegradable gel formulation into the eye.
Boehringer Ingelheim claims to have a holistic approach in the development of retinal disease therapies, targeting important mechanisms in the pathogenesis of retinal diseases. The company has developed a pipeline portfolio of therapy approaches in different stages of development up to phase 2 in macular degeneration, diabetic retinal diseases and others.
According to the German pharma company, Inflammasome’s delivery technology, which uses a long-acting degradable IVT implant, complements its retinal disease portfolio.
Boehringer Ingelheim discovery research senior corporate vice president Clive Wood said: “Boehringer Ingelheim is looking forward to developing Inflammasome’s novel technology for the delivery of our first-in-class retinal disease compounds working jointly with Inflammasome’s highly experienced scientific team.
“This will enable us to develop a broad range of novel therapy options for the many patients with retinal diseases waiting urgently for better and new therapy options.”
As per the terms of the agreement, the science-based company is entitled to be paid up to $160m (£128.8m) in up-front, research and development support and milestone gated development payments from the German pharma giant. The company will also receive tiered royalties based on future commercial sales of developed products and other milestones, which will be due on commercialisation.
Inflammasome Therapeutics CEO Paul Ashton said: “We are delighted to enter into a collaboration with a company of Boehringer Ingelheim’s stature.
“We look forward to working with their team to leverage our respective technologies and expertise to develop new therapies for devastating retinal diseases leading to blindness. This collaboration fits our strategy of advancing the company via both collaborations and internal development.”
The company was established to develop therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes and other prevalent, degenerative diseases.