CombinatoRx Incorporated and Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA have entered into collaboration for the potential development and commercialisation of combination drugs to treat ophthalmic diseases. The agreement unites CombinatoRx's leadership in the systematic discovery of novel combination drug candidates with Fovea's drug development resources and expertise in the field of ophthalmic therapeutics.
"Fovea is dedicated to creating the next generation of drugs to treat disorders of the eye and we look forward to working with their development team to advance CombinatoRx's product candidates into the ophthalmic space. This deal exemplifies the continued execution of our strategy to capture the value created by CombinatoRx's portfolio of product candidates and provides an innovative and financially compelling way to mobilise into a new specialty business. In this deal we access specialty development expertise, non-dilutive capital and retain significant product rights," said Alexis Borisy, president and CEO of CombinatoRx.
"This exciting relationship allows us to immediately leverage our preclinical and clinical team and scientific capabilities by seeking to create novel ophthalmic drugs built from CombinatoRx synergistic combinations," said Bernard Gilly, co-founder CEO and chairman of Fovea.
"In addition, this deal is consistent with our strategy of building a fully integrated ophthalmology franchise. This collaboration will result in Fovea receiving important marketing rights to anchor our future commercial business in exchange for our development investment," added Gilly.
Under the terms of the agreement, Fovea has agreed to fund and conduct pre-clinical and clinical development of combination drug candidates it selects from the CombinatoRx portfolio, including creating ophthalmic formulations. Fovea has agreed to develop promising combination candidates up to the start of phase III clinical trials. In exchange for Fovea's development investment, CombinatoRx will grant to Fovea exclusive commercial rights to selected products in Europe and certain additional countries, states the company release.
CombinatoRx will jointly own new intellectual property and data generated by Fovea up to phase III trials and retains the rights to develop and commercialise the ophthalmic products in North America and certain other countries. The parties will have co-exclusive rights in Japan and Taiwan. CombinatoRx and Fovea may choose to jointly pursue phase III trials and regulatory approval of the product candidates in preparation for launch in their respective territories.
Under the agreement, CombinatoRx will also grant to Fovea an exclusive worldwide license to certain preclinical drug combinations to treat allergic and inflammatory diseases of the front of the eye. For these licensed compounds, CombinatoRx is eligible to receive up to approximately $20 million in upfront and development and regulatory milestone payments for the first product candidate successfully developed, and an additional milestone payment for the approval of a product in an additional indication. CombinatoRx is also eligible to receive royalties for each licensed product commercialized by Fovea.
CombinatoRx Incorporated is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new medicines built from synergistic combinations of approved drugs, designed to attack disease on multiple fronts. CombinatoRx applies its proprietary combination drug discovery technology to identify new combination product candidates in a number of disease areas, including immunoinflammatory disease, oncology, metabolic disease, neurodegenerative disease, and infectious disease.
Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA is a Paris-based biopharmaceutical company specialised in development and commercialisation of drugs for the treatment of ocular diseases (dry eye, age related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy), with a special focus on retinal pathologies.