March 12, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Cambridge, Mass.-based Epizyme said Thursday that it will buy back all commercial rights outside of Japan to its former cancer drug candidate EPZ-6438 from Eisai Company, Ltd. for $40 million up front, plus another possible $70 million in various clinical and regulatory milestones.
Epizyme CFO Andrew Singer told analysts on a conference call Thursday that Eisai has paid $39 million in development costs for EPZ-6438, but added that because the company saw how successful the drug was at treating various forms of cancer, the buyback was a solid deal.
The ability to control its own destiny has remained an important part of Epizyme ethos, close watchers of the company said of the news Thursday.
“Throughout its history, Epizyme has always kept an eye on staying independent. When it was accumulating partnerships for its epigenetics research a few years ago, it made sure to preserve its ability to maneuver and keep some upside for its work,” wrote columnist Bed Fidler at Xconomy. “In a broad deal with Celgene Corporation for instance, it kept U.S. rights to a bunch of potential drugs. In a pact with Eisai, it kept an option to buy back into some of the potential profits.”
“Over the past seven years, we have been deliberately building Epizyme as an independent, fully integrated oncology company. Obtaining global control of EPZ-6438, a very promising clinical asset, represents an important milestone in the evolution of the Company,” said Robert Gould, president and chief executive officer of Epizyme, in a statement.
“As we began to see the quality and duration of the responses, including two complete responses, in relapsed and refractory NHL and INI1-deficient patients treated with EPZ-6438 as a monotherapy, it became clear to us that having worldwide development and commercialization responsibility for a targeted therapeutic like 6438 would be transformative for Epizyme,” said Gould.
As such, Epizyme said that as soon as the deal was complete, it would rush the drug into a five-arm Phase II study in approximately 150 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The study will look at how the drug works on diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) type with wild-type EZH2; diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, GCB type with mutant EZH2; follicular lymphoma with wild-type EZH2; follicular lymphoma with mutant EZH2; and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, non-GCB type.
Epizyme will also begin a Phase II study in adults with INI1-deficient tumors, including synovial sarcoma, and a Phase II study in children with INI-1 deficient tumors, including malignant rhabdoid tumors.
“With the continued emergence of clinical data on EPZ-6438, it is apparent that this is a therapy with tremendous potential to benefit a variety of patient populations,” said Takashi Owa, chief innovation officer for Eisai Product Creation Systems. “As we re-focus our resources on our later stage programs across therapeutic areas, we believe that Epizyme is well positioned to move EPZ-6438 development forward aggressively. We are pleased that the structure of this agreement allows us to participate in the future success of EPZ-6438.”
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Vertex Pharmaceuticals made news last week when it terminated leases on three properties in Cambridge, Mass, that freed up 313,000 square feet of space in the Genetown area. The company has spent a significant part of 2014 consolidating its operations on the South Boston waterfront, leasing 291,000 square feet of office space at West Kendall Street in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. So we wanted to ask the BioSpace community: Is Boston going to be getting more biotech leases anytime soon, or fewer tenants?
