Avillion, a drug development company, has signed a clinical co-development agreement with Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the AstraZeneca Plc group, to advance PT027 through a global clinical development programme for the treatment of asthma.

PT027 is an investigational fixed dose combination of budesonide (an inhaled corticosteroid) and albuterol (a short-acting beta-2 agonist). Avillion will be responsible for developing PT027 through an extensive clinical development programme and will finance the programme through to regulatory approval. No financial terms are disclosed.

Allison Jeynes-Ellis, MD, chief executive officer of Avillion, said: "This new collaboration is another great example of how our innovative clinical development model and exceptional operational capabilities can be used to bolster the productivity of our partners' development pipeline. We have already demonstrated the success of our approach in our partnerships with Pfizer and Merck KGaA. We are looking forward to initiating this exciting clinical development programme for PT027 in asthma."

Avillion is a drug development company with an innovative business model focusing on the clinical co-development and regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products.