Pharmacyclics Could Get Almost $1 Billion in Licensing Deal
Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, recently announced it has executed an agreement with Pharmacyclics, Inc. to jointly develop and market the anti-cancer compound, PCI-32765. A number of Phase I and II studies with PCI-32765 are ongoing across a panel of B-cell malignancy disorders, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Interim data were reported at the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, and oral presentations on two separate Phase II studies were presented at the upcoming American Society of Hematology Meeting in December, along with several other poster presentations.
“The agreement with Pharmacyclics is an opportunity to bring a new form of oral therapy to patients with B-cell malignancies,” said William N. Hait, MD, PhD, Global Therapeutic Head, Oncology, for Janssen. “PCI-32765 is an innovative compound, with broad applicability and the potential to help a large number of patients with B-cell malignancies.”
According to the terms of the agreement, the companies have entered into a worldwide 50/50 profit-loss agreement, sharing development and commercialization activities. Janssen has made an up-front payment of $150 million, which will be recorded in the fourth quarter, and will make additional payments based upon the achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones. This transaction is expected to have a dilutive impact to Johnson & Johnson’s 2011 earnings per share of approximately $0.04 to $0.05.
PCI-32765 is an orally active, small molecule inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk), an essential element of the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) signaling pathway. BCR signaling is a critical pathway required for tumor expansion and proliferation, and PCI-32765 exerts its anti-tumor function by blocking BCR signaling and thereby inducing cell death.
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson are dedicated to addressing and solving the most important unmet medical needs of our time, including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, infectious disease, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
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