Roche, Eleven Bio Ink $270 Million Exclusive Licensing Deal

August 16, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Things are looking up for beleaguered Eleven Biotherapeutics . This morning the company announced its licensing deal with pharma giant Roche is in effect, enabling the company to receive a needed infusion of $30 million.

The two companies forged a deal to develop Eleven’s experimental EBI-031 treatment for eye-related diseases, such as diabetic macular edema and uveitis in June. The deal is worth up to $270 million for Eleven Biotherapeutics, which has explored numerous avenues to address recent financial issues stemming from two failed drug trials. Earlier this month, the company said one such option could be the sale of some or all of its assets.

Under the Roche agreement, Eleven is entitled to an upfront payment of $7.5 million, along with potential future milestone payments of up to $262.5 million. The first potential future milestone payment of $22.5 million, is subject to the effectiveness of an investigational new drug application for EBI-031. The company submitted the IND to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2016 and received clearance in July 2016 for the purpose of conducting clinical trials of EBI-031 in DME and uveitis.

With the completion of this licensing deal and the IND being effective, we look forward to the future clinical advancement of EBI-031 by Roche as they explore its potential use for ocular diseases, including diabetic macular edema,” Abbie Celniker, president and chief executive officer of Eleven Biotherapeutics, said in a statement.

EBI-031 is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and inhibits all known forms of IL-6 cytokine signaling. EBI-031 was designed for intravitreal delivery using Eleven Biotherapeutics’ AMP-Rx platform. The drug blocks both free IL-6 and IL-6 complexed to the soluble IL-6 receptor.

For the past year, Eleven Biotherapeutics has struggled with the failure of two experimental therapies. On Jan. 10, the company announced that its Phase III clinical trial of EBI-005 (isunakinra) for severe allergic conjunctivitis did not meet its primary endpoint. That was the second time EBI-005 failed to live up to expectations. In May 2015, the company reported that EBI-005, this time being studied for the treatment of moderate to severe dry eye disease, failed to prevent damage to the cornea or reduce eye pain in comparison to the control group.

Although the Roche financing is that needed financial boost for the company, investors have not responded this morning with a surge on the stock. Eleven Biotherapeutics is actually down from its opening price today of $5.80 per share. The stock ticked up, hitting $5.97 per share this morning, before sliding back to $5.35 per share as of 11:39 a.m. That inaction on the part of investors is likely uncertainty about the future of the company—especially if it looks to sell off its assets. In June, fresh off the heels of its deal with Roche, the company terminated 14 positions, approximately 70 percent of its workforce, in a restructuring strategy in an effort to keep moving forward with its eye therapies.