Proximagen sublicenses rights to tonabersat in North America
Proximagen Neuroscience plc announced that it has signed a development, license and sub-license agreement with Upsher-Smith Laboratories Inc.in relation to tonabersat, a drug compound recently acquired by Proximagen through its acquisition of Minster Pharmaceuticals plc.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Upsher-Smith will undertake the clinical development, regulatory filing and commercialisation of tonabersat for epilepsy in the USA, Canada and Mexico and Proximagen will be entitled to royalty-free use of Upsher-Smith’s arising clinical data when developing tonabersat for Europe, a market to which Proximagen is retaining full rights. Upsher-Smith will also be making an upfront payment to Proximagen and any royalties and milestone receipts arising from sub-licensing tonabersat in territories excluding North America and Europe will be shared equally between Proximagen and Upsher-Smith.
The Agreement includes the grant of a sub-license of certain patents and know-how which were originally licensed to Minster by SmithKline Beecham plc (subsequently “GSK”). GSK has been made aware of the partnering discussions with Upsher-Smith and their support has enabled the Agreement with Upsher-Smith. The signing of the Agreement also follows the announcement by Proximagen on 11 March 2010 that tonabersat had achieved positive efficacy results in National Institute of Health non-clinical epilepsy studies.
Commenting on the Agreement, Kenneth Mulvany, Chief Executive Officer of Proximagen, said: “We are delighted that Upsher-Smith share our confidence that tonabersat has the potential to become a leading therapy for the treatment of epilepsy and our experience of working with Upsher-Smith over the last two years on the PRX1 programme has convinced us that they have the expertise, resources and commitment to bring tonabersat to the market in North America. We also believe that the retention by Proximagen of EU marketing rights, whose value would be enhanced by the successful development of tonabersat in North America, has the potential to deliver significant long-term value to our shareholders.”
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