Pieris AG announced today the signature of a collaboration
and license agreement with Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited, under which Pieris
will apply its proprietary Anticalin scaffold technology to discover novel
Anticalins against two Daiichi Sankyo targets. Upon discovery and achievement
by Pieris of early preclinical development milestones for lead Anticalin drug
candidates, Daiichi Sankyo will assume responsibility for further development
and marketing of the Anticalin compounds.
“Pieris stands in a unique position as an enabling
company in the targeted therapeutics space when traditional biological
approaches are untenable,” noted Stephen Yoder, CEO of Pieris. “Our
deal with Daiichi Sankyo demonstrates yet again the high value of the Anticalin
technology and we’re extremely proud to count Daiichi Sankyo among the growing
list of industry leaders who are our collaboration partners.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Pieris will receive more
than EUR 7 million upon signing of the collaboration agreement for the two
targets. In addition, Pieris will receive committed research funding and
payments for the achievement of research, preclinical, regulatory and
commercial milestones. The partnership could encompass for Pieris more than EUR
100 million per target in license fees, funding and milestones provided the
nominated Anticalin achieves full commercialization, and tiered, mid- to mid-high
single digit royalties on sales from marketed Anticalins resulting from the
collaboration. Daiichi Sankyo will have exclusive marketing rights worldwide
for all such products.
Pieris’ proprietary Anticalin technology platform creates
next generation targeted therapeutics and addresses targets in ways that
traditional technologies such as monoclonal antibodies cannot. Anticalins are
recombinantly engineered lipocalins, endogenous low-molecular weight human
proteins that naturally bind, store and transport a wide spectrum of molecules.
To obtain a specific Anticalin, Pieris applies its deep protein engineering
know-how to select drug candidates from its suite of rationally designed
proprietary Anticalin libraries.
