Progress in Alliance to Develop Once-Weekly Actimmmune
InterMune to Pay Maxygen $1M Milestone
Monday October 7, 7:00 am ET
BRISBANE, Calif. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InterMune, Inc., (Nasdaq: ITMN - News) and Maxygen Holdings Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY - News) announced today that the two companies have made progress in their alliance to develop a next-generation version of Actimmune® (interferon gamma 1-b) that can be taken once weekly rather than the current regimen of three times a week.
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Maxygen has received a $1M milestone payment from InterMune for successfully achieving drug performance criteria established by InterMune. Maxygen has developed a series of preclinical candidates that have been shown in animal models to have improved pharmacokinetic properties that should allow a once-per-week dosing regimen. These compounds are now advancing into further preclinical development.
Actimmune is a genetically engineered version of a naturally occurring protein that stimulates the immune system. InterMune currently markets Actimmune for the treatment of two life-threatening congenital diseases in children: chronic granulomatous disease and severe, malignant osteopetrosis. InterMune is also conducting several clinical studies with Actimmune for other life-threatening diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), liver fibrosis and ovarian cancer.
"We are very pleased with the progress we are making with Maxygen to develop once-weekly Actimmune, a formulation that should provide improved convenience for the growing number of clinicians and patients using this novel drug, that targets life-threatening diseases," said Scott Harkonen, President and CEO of InterMune. "We believe that recent Phase III clinical data suggesting a survival benefit with Actimmune In IPF will lead to $400 to $500 million in peak Actimmune sales. If we are able to demonstrate clinical benefit with our development programs currently underway in other diseases, Actimmune has an even greater revenue generating potential for the company. It is therefore important for us to have next-generation compounds to maintain and strengthen that franchise in the future."
"This milestone further validates Maxygen's ability to efficiently generate desired commercial improvements in therapeutic proteins for next generation pharmaceutical products," said Russell Howard, Ph.D., CEO of Maxygen. "We are very pleased with the progress of this collaboration and feel that the synergies of Maxygen's product development capabilities, together with InterMune's clinical development and sales and marketing expertise, will be extremely valuable in advancing this product towards commercialization."
About Maxygen
Maxygen, Inc. headquartered in Redwood City, California, is focused on creating novel products using its integrated proprietary technologies for human therapeutics and industrial applications. Maxygen's technologies bring together advances in molecular biology and protein modification to create novel biotechnology products. Maxygen has strategic collaborations with leading organizations including Aventis, InterMune, Celltech, Lundbeck, ALK- Abello and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Additionally, Maxygen has a range of other strategic alliances in industrial applications, as well as funding from U.S.A. government organizations including USAID, DARPA and NIST-ATP.
About InterMune
InterMune is a commercially driven biopharmaceutical company focused on the marketing, development and applied research of life-saving therapies for pulmonary disease, infectious disease and cancer. For additional information about InterMune, please visit www.intermune.com. |
