Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc announced that the company has signed a new research collaboration agreement with Redx Pharma plc to discover and develop drug candidates for two cancer targets in the Ras/Raf/MAP kinase (MAPK) pathway. This research collaboration follows the previously announced sale of Redx’s pre-clinical pan-RAF inhibitor program to Jazz for the potential treatment of Raf and Ras mutant tumors in July 2019.
Under the terms of the research collaboration agreement, Jazz will make an upfront payment to Redx of $10 million followed by another $10 million in year two, provided research work is continuing. Following delivery of an IND-ready molecule, Redx will be eligible to receive up to a further $200 million from Jazz in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments for each program. The first milestone is payable upon successful investigational new drug (IND) application submission. In addition, Redx is eligible to receive tiered royalties in mid-single digit percentages of any future net sales. Following a successful submission of an IND application, Jazz will be responsible for further development, manufacturing, regulatory activities and commercialization.
“We are excited to collaborate with Redx on two oncology programs in the Ras/Raf/MAP kinase pathway. Redx has established itself as a strong partner for Jazz, given the continued momentum in our existing collaboration on Pan-RAF, and we look forward to this new collaboration and access to Redx’s small molecule discovery capabilities,” said Robert Iannone, M.D., M.S.C.E., executive vice president, research and development of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. “We are strategically targeting this cancer pathway with multiple experimental approaches while further strengthening our targeted oncology pipeline. These programs in the Ras/Raf/MAP kinase pathway are highly complementary to our growing R&D portfolio of innovative and targeted oncology therapies.”