ZymoGenetics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, announced the signing of a license agreement with Novo Nordisk A/S for exclusive rights in North America to ZymoGenetics' patents covering IL-20 (Interleukin 20). As part of the licensing agreement, Novo Nordisk will pay ZymoGenetics a $4 million initial license fee, along with milestone and royalty payments. Novo Nordisk will be responsible for all development activities. Further financial details were not disclosed.
"We are very pleased to have licensed this protein to Novo Nordisk," commented Bruce L.A. Carter, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of ZymoGenetics. "We are aggressively developing our own internal pipeline of proprietary protein therapeutics focused on bleeding, autoimmune diseases and cancer. With our extensive patent portfolio that covers a variety of therapeutic areas, we intend to pursue an out-licensing strategy for selected proteins."
ZymoGenetics and Novo Nordisk entered into an option agreement in November 2000 under which Novo Nordisk has the right to license exclusive rights to a limited number of proteins outside North America until November 2004. Effective September 2001, Novo Nordisk licensed the ex-North American rights to IL-20 under the option agreement. With the recent signing of the North American license agreement, Novo Nordisk possesses worldwide development rights for IL-20. ZymoGenetics retains rights and prospective rights to the other members of IL-10 family, including IL-22 and IL-22 receptors.
ZymoGenetics researchers identified IL-20 as a new member of the IL-10 cytokine family using the Company's genomics based discovery platform. In preclinical studies, over-expressing IL-20 caused skin abnormalities that resemble human psoriasis. In vitro, IL-20 activates human keratinocytes and induces the expression of other pro-inflammatory cytokines. Although IL-20 is expressed at a very low level in normal skin, its expression is significantly up-regulated in lesional psoriasis skin compared to adjacent non-lesional psoriasis skin. Because of the elevated expression of IL-20 in psoriasis skin lesions and the pro-inflammatory effects of IL-20 on keratinocyte gene expression, IL-20 may play an important role in the regulation of cutaneous inflammation and pathology of psoriasis. Therefore, IL-20 is potentially a specific target for the treatment of psoriasis.