Biota in new Hep C partnership with Glaxo
Monday, 12 August, 2002
Biota Holdings' US subsidiary Biota Inc has announced a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to develop new drugs against Hepatitis C, using Biota Inc's proprietary Numax technology platform.
The collaborative and licensing deal is worth $US3.5 million over the next two years, plus milestone payments for any compounds that go into development and royalties for any future products.
New Biota Holdings CEO Peter Molloy said that the agreement was the first one for Biota Inc, and an important one for Biota Holdings.
"It affirms our belief and investment in the Biota Inc technology platform, and provides significant funding toward the running of our US subsidiary," he explained. Biota Inc was established in the US after the acquisition last year of Numax Pharmaceuticals.
Biota Inc's Numax technology platform is aimed at improving nucleoside drugs, a class of drugs used to treat viral diseases including HIV and Hepatitis C, as well as cancer.
There are a large number of nucleoside drugs on the market, but they have problems with side effects, said Molloy. He said that Biota's technology allows the development of new variants of nucleoside drugs.
"The attraction of Numax technology is that it offers the opportunity to rapidly develop new versions of the existing drugs, which would be more stable with improved efficacy and fewer side-effects, and could represent a whole new generation of therapeutics," explained Molloy.
Under terms of the agreement with GSK, Biota Inc will be involved in discovery and synthesis of new nucleoside-based compounds, which GSK will screen against Hepatitis C and other viruses.
GSK is one of the world's largest marketers of nucleoside drugs, according to Molloy. "They have a very important stake in the field and maybe that's why this deal was so attractive to them," he said.
Biota Holdings has had a relationship with GSK since 1994, based around its influenza drug Relenza. "This affirms the quality of our long term relationship with GSK," Molloy said.
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