Avigen, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, has sold the rights to its early stage blood coagulation compound, AV513, to Baxter Healthcare Corporation, a global leader in haemophilia therapy, for $7 million. Baxter acquired all rights to AV513, a compound poised for clinical research that has been shown to improve blood coagulation in preclinical models for haemophilia. Avigen has been developing AV513 as an oral therapy to treat patients with bleeding disorders, including haemophilia A.

"The sale of AV513 is an example of building value in a product that is differentiated from current therapies, and bringing it to a valuation point that generated a positive return on investment," said Kenneth Chahine, Avigen's president and chief executive officer. "Our team identified AV513 as a drug candidate with a novel approach for treating haemophilia and other bleeding disorders, and which offered strong IP potential in a target patient population with an unmet need. Because it was outside our neurology focus, it was our goal to follow a reasonable budget to establish AV513's value, and then move it to a better-resourced company with the expertise to develop a safe and effective therapy."

"This technology acquisition supports Baxter's efforts to research the application of novel technologies that will pioneer the next generation of haemophilia therapies," said Hartmut Ehrlich, vice president of global BioScience research and development for Baxter.

"Looking ahead, our objective is to identify opportunities that represent significant potential value for patients, while balancing our investment of resources and development risk in order to provide a significant and timely return to shareholders. Along these lines, we are also in the process of partnering AV411, our non-opioid glial-attenuator product for neuropathic pain and drug addiction," continued Chahine.

AV513 was first identified in 2004 by Avigen's vice president of Research and Development, Kirk Johnson, and colleagues, seeking an existing molecule with strategic characteristics for providing an alternative delivery approach for haemophilia therapies. Pre-clinical efficacy data in haemophilic mice was first published in 2006 in the medical journal Thrombosis & Haemostasis. Efficacy data from the study of an oral form of AV513 in other haemophilia A preclinical models was published in the journal Blood in 2007. Most recently, an in vitro study on AV513 pro-coagulant efficacy in the donated blood of human haemophilia patients was presented at the American Society of Haemophilia meeting in San Francisco on December 9th.

AV513 is a drug candidate derived from a specific seaweed enriched for a particular type of non-anticoagulant sulfated polysaccharide denoted fucoidan, which has been shown to boost blood coagulation.

Avigen is a biopharmaceutical company focused on identifying and developing differentiated products to treat patients with serious neurological disorders.