Santhera licenses drug from Polyphor

POL6014, derived from Polyphor's proprietary macrocycle platform and advanced with the support of an award by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc., has already successfully completed a Phase Ib study in people with CF, confirming the safety, favorable pharmacokinetic profile, and strong elastase inhibition and confirming the previous data from preclinical studies, including animal models.

Under the terms of the agreement, Polyphor will receive an upfront payment of CHF6.5 million paid in the form of Santhera shares and could receive up to an additional CHF121 million in potential development, regulatory and sales milestones for the initial indication, as well as tiered double-digit royalties on sales. Santhera will have the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize POL6014, and assume full responsibility for its development within agreed timelines. If other indications are successfully developed, Polyphor would be entitled to additional undisclosed milestone payments and additional royalties. Santhera and Polyphor are both based in the Basel area.
 
"We are very excited to be licensing this program to Santhera, a specialty pharmaceutical company highly committed to the development and commercialization of orphan drugs with a strong and experienced team in the field of rare diseases and in respiratory trials," said Giacomo Di Nepi, Chief Executive Officer of Polyphor. "There is a high unmet medical need for the treatment of chronic neutrophilic lung inflammations."

"This collaboration is a further validation of the ability of our macrocycle platform to generate high-value, innovative new drug candidates. Our own efforts can now be further focused on advancing the Phase III program for our novel antibiotic, murepavadin, the first representative of a new class against Gram-negative bacteria to enter Phase III in several decades. We are also focusing on the development of our immuno-oncology asset, balixafortide, and generating further novel antibiotics from our OMPTA platform." 

(Press release)