Under the terms of the agreement, Aurigene will contribute its expertise in discovery and in-vivo optimisation of lead compounds, whilst drug development expertise will be provided by Debiopharm.
Debiopharm will pay Aurigene research milestones according to a pre-defined research plan and reimbursement of research costs upon achievement of a specific milestone.
“This research collaboration with Aurigene is one of Debiopharm's few drug discovery partnerships. Traditionally Debiopharm in-licenses compounds which have proof-of-concept in animals. I am confident that we will succeed as we have complementary skills and share the same level of motivation and enthusiasm,” said Rolland-Yves Mauvernay, president and CEO of The Debiopharm Group.
“We are excited to work on these novel targets with Debiopharm which can potentially lead to first-in-class drugs in treating cancer and modulating the immune response,” said Murali Ramachandra, VP, preclinical biology of Aurigene.