Eli Lilly Bets $500 Million On AstraZeneca PLC’s Alzheimer's Drug
September 16, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
AstraZeneca PLC and Eli Lilly inked a deal to co-develop and commercialize a potential Alzheimer’s drug, the companies announced today.
Under the agreement, Lilly will pay up to $500 million to AstraZeneca at development and regulatory milestones. The initial milestone will have a payment of $50 million.
The drug, AZD3293, is an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor. One of Alzheimer’s characteristics is an accumulation of amyloid plaque in the brain. BACE is associated with the development of beta-amyloid, so inhibiting BACE should decrease or prevent the formation of amyloid plaque and potentially slow progression of Alzheimer’s.
Many researchers believe that BACE inhibitors are very promising for treatment of Alzheimer’s because the BASE enzyme is mostly localized to the brain and not found throughout the body.
In Phase 1 studies, AZD3293 has reduced beta-amyloid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients and in the control group. Earlier this year AstraZeneca announced it planned to enroll the drug in registration trials.
Now the two companies hope to move quickly into Phase 2/3 trials in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. Lilly scientist will lead clinical development in conjunction with researchers from AstraZeneca’s Innovative Medicines Unit for neuroscience. AstraZeneca will ultimately take charge of manufacturing. Both companies will split commercializing, if and when it occurs, and split all costs and net global revenues equally.
“Alzheimer’s disease is one of the biggest challenges facing medical science today,” said Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of innovative medicines and early development at AstraZeneca, “BACE inhibitors have the potential to target one of the key drivers of disease progression. We are looking forward to working with Lilly, a company with a long term commitment to and expertise in treating Alzheimer’s disease.”
David Ricks, senior vice president of Lilly and president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, said the partnership was a good fit for both companies, while maintaining the individual strengths each brings to the table.
“Lilly’s pipeline of potential medicines and diagnostic agents targeting the known hallmarks of the disease has been bolstered today by this alliance with AstraZeneca, a strong strategic partner who shares our passion to bring new medicines to patients suffering from this debilitating illness,” said Ricks.
Several companies including Eli Lilly have already unsuccessfully attempted to take BACE inhibitors to market.
In June of 2013, Eli Lilly and Company terminated a Phase 2 trial of LY2886721 because of liver abnormalities possibly associated with the drug. In 2010 Lilly had also ended a Phase 1 trial in a different BACE inhibitor. Japanese company Eisai has collaborated with Bioten to develop two Alzheimer’s drugs, BASE inhibitor E2609, and BAN2401, an antibody therapeutic.