AstraZeneca and Ionis Pharmaceuticals have closed a global development and commercialisation deal for eplontersen, an experimental ligand-conjugated antisense therapy developed by Ionis. In preclinical studies, eplontersen demonstrated a 30-50 fold increase in potency compared with the Ionis unconjugated antisense drug, Tegsedi (inotersen).
Eplontersen is designed to reduce the production of transthyretin (TTR) protein to treat amyloid transthyretin (ATTR), a systemic, progressive and fatal disease. It is administered monthly as a subcutaneous injection. Eplontersen is currently in global phase 3 trials for ATTR cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and ATTR polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN). It is expected that a marketing approval application will be filed for eplontersen in ATTR-PN by the end of 2022.
There are estimated to be up to half a million people with ATTR-CM and up to 40,000 people with ATTR-PN worldwide. The market is already served by Pfizer’s Vyndaqel/Vyndamax (tafamidis) and Alnylam’s RNAi therapy Onpattro (patisiran).
Astra Zeneca and Ionis have agreed to jointly develop and commercialise eplontersen in the US, while AstraZeneca will develop and commercialise it in the rest of the world, except in Latin America.
AstraZeneca will pay Ionis an upfront of $200m. Additional conditional payments of up to $485m are payable on regulatory approvals, up to $2.9bn on sales-related milestones plus royalties in the range of low double-digit to mid-twenties percentage.
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)