Actelion, UCB restructure Zavesca license agreement

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Nov. 17 - Actelion Ltd. and UCB announced Thursday that the companies have replaced an existing license agreement covering Zavesca for the treatment of adults with Gaucher type 1 disease.

The previous license between Searle and Oxford Glyco Sciences, including relevant iminosugar patents from the OGS/Celltech patent estate, are assigned to Actelion, according to a company news release.

Actelion will make an undisclosed upfront payment to UCB in return for a single-digit royalty rate on future Zavesca sales in type 1 Gaucher disease, and potentially in other glycolipid storage disorders under development, such as Tay-Sachs disease, Niemann-Pick type C and Gaucher disease type 3.

The agreement calls for Actelion to assume responsibility for the prior UCB obligations on Zavesca manufacturing and supply chain, and manage all patent-related activities, officials said.

Actelion also will ensure supply of the drug to Teva, the Zavesca license holder in Israel. Acetlion will be responsible for all clinical and preclinical activities, including those that were not covered by the previous license extension concluded in June 2004 with Celltech, now part of UCB, officials said.

Officials said that after a short transition period, Actelion will be in full control of Zavesca.

"We are also committed to fully exploring the medical benefit Zavesca might offer in other glycolipid storage disorders, given Zavesca's potential to reduce the synthesis and accumulation of pathological lipid storage inside the cells of patients affected with glycosphingolipid disorders. In addition, the ability of Zavesca to cross the blood-brain barrier might play an important role in diseases affected with pathological accumulation of glycosphingolipid disorders in the neuronal cells in the brain," Actelion chief executive officer Jean-Paul Clozel said in the release.

Actelion is a biopharmaceutical company based in Allschwill/Basel, Switzerland.

UCB, based in Brussels, Belgium, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on central nervous system disorders, allergy and respiratory diseases, immune and inflammatory disorders and oncology.

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