Incyte Corporation announced it has acquired the rights to develop and commercialize ruxolitinib (Jakafi ®), its proprietary JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) from Eli Lilly and Company. Additionally, Incyte has amended its collaboration and license agreement with Novartis, granting Novartis exclusive research, development and commercialization rights for ruxolitinib in GVHD outside the U.S.
“We are committed to the research and development of innovative medicines that will benefit patients with serious diseases, like GVHD, where there are no approved treatments,” said Hervé Hoppenot, President and CEO, Incyte. “We are very pleased to be able to expand our development opportunities for ruxolitinib and plan to initiate a registration study in GVHD later this year as we seek to accelerate the availability of a treatment option for patients with this life-threatening disorder.”
Incyte and Lilly have agreed to amend their license, development, and commercialization agreement to enable Incyte to independently develop and commercialize ruxolitinib for GVHD. Incyte will make an upfront payment of $35 million to Lilly. The terms of the agreement also include additional potential payments by Incyte to Lilly upon the achievement of certain regulatory milestones.
Additionally, Incyte and Novartis have agreed to amend their aollaboration and license agreement, granting Novartis the rights to research, develop and commercialize ruxolitinib for GVHD outside the U.S. Novartis will make payments to Incyte upon the achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones.
If approved, Incyte expects to commercialize ruxolitinib for GVHD in the U.S. and under the terms of the existing collaboration and license agreement would be eligible to receive potential milestone payments and royalties on sales of ruxolitinib in GVHD by Novartis outside the U.S.
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Filed Under: Drug Discovery
