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news.Generian Pharmaceuticals has signed a collaboration and exclusive license agreement with Astellas Pharma’s wholly owned subsidiary Mitobridge for the research and development of new small molecules for undruggable therapeutic targets.
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As part of the collaboration, both the companies will conduct research and preclinical development activities together for identifying new monovalent small molecules which regulate target proteins via stabilisation, activation or degradation as potential development candidates.
The molecules will be developed using a proprietary drug discovery platform for diseases which have limited options for treatment.
Generian CEO Hank Safferstein said: “We are excited to collaborate with Astellas and believe our strategy can successfully mine for candidate drugs for therapeutically relevant targets that are currently considered undruggable.
“Our small molecule discovery approach allows us to rapidly screen and identify potential drug candidates in an entirely new way in order to develop first-in-class medicines.”
Under the deal, Astellas will clinically develop, manufacture, and commercialise all the products developed from the joint research activities.
As per the terms of the agreement, Generian will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for milestone payments of more than $180m as well as the single digit royalties depending on the global sales of the products.
Mitobridge president and division head David Barrett said: “Our collaboration with Generian is an exciting and transformative opportunity to accelerate our drug discovery activities in the area of undruggable target space.
“We are very excited to work with a world-class team of collaborators to deliver significant new treatment options for patients suffering from currently intractable or poorly served diseases.”
