Novartis AG will share the dangers and rewards as Amgen Inc. will assist develop its pipeline of experimental Alzheimer’s illness medicine, in a transfer that’s turning into more and more commonplace amongst drug makers keen to deal with the difficult-to-treat situation. CNP520 is planned to be included in a pioneering prevention study in people with a genetic risk of developing AD, in collaboration with the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute.
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The work with U.S. drugmaker Amgen on Alzheimer’s will focus on finding a medicine that can be given orally, rather than as an injection, through the development of so-called BACE inhibitor drugs. In the study-part of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative-participants will be given CNP520, placebo, or CAD106, a Novartis compound not covered by the company’s collaboration with Amgen.
The prevailing theory, the amyloid hypothesis, has received some support in early-stage studies, including a trial conducted by Biogen for aducanumab.
“This Novartis collaboration with Amgen highlights our clear commitment to neuroscience and to bring multiple, new targeted therapies to patients living with Alzheimer’s disease and migraine, where the unmet medical need remains high.” said David Epstein, Head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals in a press release.
On the other hand, Novartis will develop a drug for migraine using a project called AMG 334, a fully human monoclonal antibody. AMG 334 targets the Calcitonin-Gene-Related-Peptide (CGRP) receptor, which according to Amgen is believed to transmit signals that can cause incapacitating pain. It is now in phase 1/2a trials.
Under the terms of the arrangement, Novartis and Amgen will share responsibilities for development and commercialization of the BACE inhibitor program.
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But it also has an important presence in multiple sclerosis (MS) with Gilenya and the company last month moved to expand its MS business by buying the remaining rights to ofatumumab from GlaxoSmithKline. Novartis said that in return for global co-development rights and commercial rights outside the U.S., Canada and Japan, it would fund the majority of R&D costs of the migraine program for a set period, as well as pay Amgen double-digit royalties on sales. The collaboration also enables Amgen to focus on the commercialisation of its migraine programmes in the US, Canada and Japan, while leveraging Novartis’ strong commercial capabilities in neuroscience throughout Europe and other markets worldwide. It stated Amgen additionally would pay almost all of research-and-development prices for this system “for an agreed-upon interval”, after which the pair would cut up prices and revenue equally.
