Nexvet signs first deal for veterinary drug

Nexvet Biopharma has signed its first commercial licensing deal, covering biologic treatments for canine inflammatory disorders such as arthritis.

The Melbourne-based veterinary biologic drug developer has granted Japan's Meiji Seika Pharma exclusive distribution and development rights to the treatment for a number of Asian countries.

Nexvet said the commercial terms of the deal are confidential, but include an upfront fee, milestone payments and royalties on sales.

Nexvet concentrates on adapting and optimising human biologic drugs for use in animals.

It achieves this through a technology it calls PETization, a proprietary one-step process for converting the biologics into species-specific analogues.

Nexvet's development portfolio focuses on inflammatory disease, pain and cancer, as veterinary medicine for these conditions has not matched the rate of advancement of human treatment options.

The head of Meiji Seika Pharma's agricultural and veterinary division, Satoru Kurokawa, said the company negotiated access to Nexvet’s IP portfolio as part of efforts to boost its presence in the animal biologics market.

“The huge growth in human biologics medicine foreshadows a similar expansion in animal health, and Nexvet’s technology is producing striking results in this field,” he said.