Biota inks Sankyo deal

Biota has signed a letter of intent with Japanese pharma Sankyo to collaborate on the development of small molecule long-acting neuraminidase inhibitor (LANI) drugs.

Under the proposed collaboration, Biota and Sankyo will pool their LANI pipelines, cross-license patents, and share in licensing and royalty revenues.

"This is an important strategic alliance for Biota. The agreement effectively accelerates our Flunet program and gives us a major boost in the partnering process. It also gives us a potential new source of revenues, bridging our marketed products and our discovery stage programs," commented Biota CEO Peter Molloy.

Molloy described the agreement as "an attractive licensing package", and noted that it covered a strong patent element along with several compounds. Under the proposed agreement, the companies will jointly manage the partnering process, with the intention that all further clinical development work would be funded by licensing partners seeking to market the drugs.

Sankyo has developed its own long-acting neuraminidase inhibitor (LANI) which is already in Phase I human clinical trials in Europe. Biota's Flunet compound is at pre-clinical stage, with the first output from the combined research likely to enter Phase II trials in 2004.