AstraZeneca and BIND Therapeutics announced they have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop Accurin, a targeted medicine from BIND’s Medicinal Nanoengineering platform. The platform is based on AstraZeneca discoveries.
The collaboration is based on data suggesting that nanomedicines like Accurins selectively accumulate in diseased tissues and cells, leading to higher drug concentrations at the site of the tumor and reduced exposure to healthy tissues.
AstraZeneca is counting on nanomedicines and other leading-edge research to help it build a drug development pipeline as its blockbuster drugs go off patent. Sales for the company have dropped sharply as generics come on the market. The company plans to cut 1,200 jobs in Delaware in coming years.
The companies will work together to complete studies of the lead Accurin, identified from a previously-completed feasibility program. AstraZeneca will then have exclusive development and commercialization rights, while BIND will lead manufacturing during the development phase. BIND could receive upfront and pre-approval milestone payments totaling $69 million, and more than $130 million in regulatory and sales milestones and other payments as well as tiered single to double-digit royalties on future sales.
“AstraZeneca believes that targeted therapies which specifically address the underlying mechanisms of disease are the future of personalized cancer treatment,” said Susan Galbraith, head of AstraZeneca’s Oncology Innovative Medicines Unit. “Our oncology teams are actively exploring a range of platforms to deliver targeted therapies, with a strategic focus on unlocking the significant potential of nanoparticles in cancer treatment. We view BIND’s targeted nanomedicines as a leading technology in this field.”
BIND was founded on proprietary technology from the laboratories of two leaders in the field of nanomedicine, professors Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Omid Farokhzad, Associate Professor of Harvard Medical School. For more information, visit the company’s web site at www.bindtherapeutics.com.
