Pieris and Daiichi Sankyo Sign Therapeutic Collaboration to Develop Anticalin Therapeutics
Pieris AG announced the signature of a collaboration and license agreement with Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited under which Pieris will apply its proprietary Anticalin scaffold technology to discover novel Anticalins against two Daiichi Sankyo targets. Upon discovery and achievement by Pieris of early preclinical development milestones for lead Anticalin drug candidates, Daiichi Sankyo will assume responsibility for further development and marketing of the Anticalin compounds.
“Pieris stands in a unique position as an enabling company in the targeted therapeutics space when traditional biological approaches are untenable,” noted Stephen Yoder, CEO of Pieris. “Our deal with Daiichi Sankyo demonstrates yet again the high value of the Anticalin technology and we’re extremely proud to count Daiichi Sankyo among the growing list of industry leaders who are our collaboration partners.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Pieris will receive more than € 7 million upon signing of the collaboration agreement for the two targets. In addition, Pieris will receive committed research funding and payments for the achievement of research, preclinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. The partnership could encompass for Pieris more than € 100 million per target in license fees, funding and milestones provided the nominated Anticalin achieves full commercialization, and tiered, mid- to mid-high single digit royalties on sales from marketed Anticalins resulting from the collaboration. Daiichi Sankyo will have exclusive marketing rights worldwide for all such products.
Pieris’ proprietary Anticalin technology platform creates next generation targeted therapeutics and addresses targets in ways that traditional technologies such as monoclonal antibodies cannot. Anticalins are recombinantly engineered lipocalins, endogenous low-molecular weight human proteins that naturally bind, store and transport a wide spectrum of molecules. To obtain a specific Anticalin, Pieris applies its deep protein engineering know-how to select drug candidates from its suite of rationally designed proprietary Anticalin libraries.
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