Sanofi and Teva Pharmaceuticals have announced an agreement to jointly develop and commercialise a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, with the deal potentially worth up to $1.5bn.
The candidate, Teva’s TEV’574, is an anti-TL1A therapy currently being evaluated in phase 2b clinical trials as a treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, the two main types of inflammatory bowel disease.
An estimated ten million people worldwide are affected by inflammatory bowel disease, a group of long-term conditions that are characterised by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, causing symptoms such as persistent diarrhoea and abdominal pain.
Despite the availability of a range of treatments, not every patient achieves long-lasting remission, and prolonged inflammation can result in damage to the gastrointestinal tract.
Sanofi’s chief executive officer, Paul Hudson, said: “Anti-TL1As are a promising class of therapies, and we believe that TEV’574 could emerge as a best-in-class option for people living with serious gastrointestinal diseases.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Teva will receive an upfront payment of approximately $500m from Sanofi, as well as development and launch milestone payments of up to $1bn.
Each company will equally share the development costs globally and net profits and losses in major markets, with other markets subject to a royalty arrangement, and Sanofi will lead the development of the phase 3 programme.
Teva will lead commercialisation of the product in Europe, Israel and specified other countries, while Sanofi will lead commercialisation in North America, Japan, other parts of Asia and the rest of the world.
Richard Francis, president and chief executive officer of Teva, said: “This collaboration further validates the great science that Teva has to offer with our internally developed anti-TL1A.
“We are honoured to partner with Sanofi to bring their proven capabilities, leadership and success in the immunology and gastroenterology space together with our capabilities to optimise development and global launches.”
The announcement comes just a day after Sanofi said it had reached an agreement to develop and commercialise an experimental vaccine candidate developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals for extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli.
Under the terms of the deal, Sanofi will pay the Johnson & Johnson unit $175m upfront, followed by development and commercial milestones. Both parties will co-fund current and future research and development costs.