The companies, who initiated the collaboration in December 2006, are moving the program into preclinical development. As a result, Symphogen will receive a milestone payment from Meiji under the terms of the agreement.
Under the terms of the original agreement, Symphogen received an initial technology access fee from Meiji and is eligible to receive development milestone payments as well as royalties on worldwide net sales from any successfully developed products.
Meiji has agreed to fund the development costs associated with the program. Symphogen has retained an option to enter into 50/50 profit share and co-development collaboration with Meiji in the US and European markets upon completion of the first Phase II clinical trial.
Kirsten Drejer, CEO of Symphogen, said: This is an important validation of our antibody discovery technology, Symplex, which Meiji used to identify a broad representation of antibodies from naturally immune human donors. Meiji will continue development of Sym006 using Symphogen’s Sympress technology for the manufacture and characterization of this recombinant polyclonal antibody product.