PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anacor Pharmaceuticals announced today that Merck has returned full worldwide development and commercialization rights for AN2690 to Anacor. AN2690 is a topical anti-fungal therapy being developed for onychomycosis, a fungal infection of the nail and nail bed. It is estimated that onychomycosis affects approximately 35 million people in the United States.
“With our Merck colleagues, we have successfully advanced AN2690 to this late-stage of development,” said David Perry, Chief Executive Officer of Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “Together we successfully completed an “End of Phase 2" meeting with the Food and Drug Administration and we are confident that this ‘Phase 3 ready’ candidate targeting a large patient population represents a compelling opportunity for an underserved market.”
In February 2007, Anacor entered into an exclusive, worldwide license, development and commercialization agreement with Schering Corporation, now a subsidiary of Merck, for the development and worldwide commercialization of AN2690.
“We are conducting a comprehensive and rigorous prioritization of our newly combined pipeline. This process has required us to make some challenging decisions,” said David Nicholson, Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Licensing and Knowledge Management at Merck. “We’ve enjoyed our productive collaboration with our Anacor colleagues and look forward to identifying other opportunities to work together in the future.”
Anacor and Merck have successfully manufactured the product candidate and completed certain Phase 3 preparatory activities such as stability testing and packaging design. Anacor is planning to initiate Phase 3 clinical trials as soon as the AN2690 program is transferred from Merck to Anacor. Simultaneously, Anacor will evaluate new partnering opportunities for AN2690.
About Anacor Pharmaceuticals
Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. Anacor focused initially on developing topical applications of its compounds to treat fungal, bacterial and inflammatory diseases. In addition, the Company is developing systemic antibacterial therapeutics under a research and development agreement with GlaxoSmithKline. Anacor’s most advanced product candidate is AN2690, a novel topical antifungal in development for the treatment of toenail onychomycosis, which is a fungal infection of the nail and nail bed. For more information visit www.anacor.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual levels of activity, performance or achievement to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the views of Anacor as of the date of this press release with respect to future events and, except as required by law, it undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release.
Contact:
Anacor Pharmaceuticals Anne Bowdidge, 650-543-7575 Investor Relations
