Allergan strikes deal with AstraZeneca over Crohn’s disease treatment

Botox-maker Allergan, which has made a series of bolt-on acquisitions in the last month after its proposed $160bn tie-up with Pfizer fell through in April, has struck a deal with the UK’s AstraZeneca over a treatment for Crohn’s disease.

Allergan will pay AstraZeneca $250m upfront for an exclusive, worldwide licence to develop and commercialise MEDI2070, a treatment that is currently undergoing clinical trials for moderate to severe Crohn’s disease – a chronic inflammation of the intestines.

Allergan may then make additional payments of up to $1.27bn dependent on the success of the drug’s development.

AstraZeneca said Crohn’s diseases and ulcerative colitis – for which MEDI2070 could potentially also be used – are outside of its three main therapy areas. The UK drugmaker wants to concentrate on treatments for respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as oncology.

AstraZeneca has been developing MEDI2070 since March 2012 following an agreement with Amgen, the US pharmaceuticals company. As a result, AstraZeneca will pay Amgen one third of all of the payments received from Allergan for the drug.

David Nicholson, chief research & development officer at Allergan, said:

MEDI2070 represents an exciting addition to our Open Science pipeline, adding an important new programme currently being studied in Crohn’s disease, with potential across a number of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.

The MEDI2070 programme also reinforces Allergan’s commitment to bringing forward important innovations in the treatment of inflammation and autoimmune disorders where significant unmet need exists across many of our therapeutic areas.

We look forward to bringing our significant clinical development and regulatory expertise to bear and maximising the potential benefit of this possible new treatment option for patients.

Allergan last month agreed to buy Tobira Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based bio-pharmaceutical start-up that specialises in liver diseases, for as much as $1.7bn. This followed shortly after an announcement of a $639m deal to acquire Vitae Pharmaceuticals, a drugmaker focused on medicines for skin conditions.