Janssen buys into regenerative diabetes portfolio
pharmafile | July 11, 2012 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | CureBeta, Evotec, Janssen, diabetes
Janssen has licensed a portfolio of drugs designed to regenerate insulin-producing beta cells.
Janssen will receive exclusive access to a series of candidates designed to trigger the regeneration of beta cells, which includes small molecules and biologics identified by scientists in the Harvard University laboratory of Douglas Melton.
These candidates were further analysed in collaboration with scientists from Evotec as part of the CureBeta research and development programme.
The portfolio of drugs is significant in that it targets the cause of diabetes rather than its symptoms, and the research collaboration’s aim is made clear in its name, CureBeta.
“Beta cell survival and function play a critical role in maintaining normal glucose levels and when they are compromised, can contribute to the onset of diabetes,” says Peter DiBattiste, Global Therapeutic head, Cardiovascular and Metabolism at Janssen.
“This collaboration strengthens our long term diabetes development pipeline and directly reflects our commitment to making a difference for the millions of people worldwide living with this disease.”
The agreement between Evotec and Janssen triggers an upfront payment of $8 million. Janssen will make future milestone payments, depending on the progress of the molecules, of up to a total of $200-300 million per product. Janssen will also pay royalties on future sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.
These payments will be shared by Evotec and Harvard according to pre-agreed terms. Evotec will receive additional research support for discovery and early development work that will be conducted in collaboration with Janssen.
The CureBeta initiative was established by Harvard, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and Evotec in 2011 to exploit the assets and expertise in industry and academia to identify and develop disease-state modifying therapeutic targets.
To that end, Evotec’s Dr Cord Dohrmann and Harvard University Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Doug Melton, recognised leaders in the field of beta cell research, began an international collaboration.
During the initial period of the collaboration, Evotec, HHMI, and Harvard established new standards in beta cell regeneration in terms of assays and tools as well as novel high potential targets. Janssen will provide industrial scope and scale as well as development expertise and marketing capabilities.
Dohrmann, chief scientific officer at Evotec, commented: “Our collaboration with Doug Melton’s laboratory has been extremely successful on multiple levels. We have not only achieved our scientific goals of creating a superior beta cell drug discovery platform and generating a deep pipeline of novel and exciting targets, but we have also established a new model of collaboration between academia and industry that has proven highly efficient and effective in accelerating innovative scientific development.
“Janssen Pharmaceuticals perfectly complements this effort, bringing in world-leading pharmaceutical development expertise as well as the necessary resources to execute on our mission to produce first-in-class therapeutics designed to restore beta cell mass and function.”
Isaac Kohlberg, Harvard’s chief technology development officer and head of its Office of Technology Development added: “Our collaboration with Evotec supports our mission of accelerating scientific research from the lab to the clinic. As the funding and licensing landscape has evolved in the pharmaceutical industry, we have evolved to identify new development strategies for our research assets.
“This alliance with Janssen Pharmaceuticals represents an important step towards a real solution for the treatment of diabetes.”
Andrew McConaghie
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