Oncothyreon, Array to jointly develop breast cancer drug

Under the agreement, Oncothyreon will be responsible for funding and conducting the clinical development of ARRY-380 and will pay an upfront fee of $10m to Array.

Phase 3 development and a defined set of combination proof-of-concept trials will be jointly carried out by the two companies on patients suffering from metastatic breast cancer, including those with brain metastases.

Both the parties are vested with an option to drop from further development and commercialization of the drug, but can opt for the same in exchange for a significant royalty.

ARRY-380 was well tolerated and demonstrated anti-tumor activity in patients with heavily pre-treated metastatic breast cancer in Phase 1 trial and demonstrated superior activity against Tykerb and neratinib in an intracranial HER2+ breast cancer xenograft model.

Oncothyreon president and chief executive officer Robert Kirkman said, "As the only selective small-molecule inhibitor of HER2 in clinical development, we believe ARRY-380 has the potential to significantly enhance the care of women with metastatic breast cancer."

Array is in charge of worldwide commercialization of the product and Oncothyreon is eligible for sales-based royalties outside of the US, in addition to equal sharing from any sublicense of marketing rights.

In the US, Oncothyreon has a co-promotion right and both the companies will equally share the cost of commercialization and profit.