US-based biotechnology company X-Chem and UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have entered into an expanded global drug discovery collaboration that covers all of AstraZeneca’s therapeutic areas and multiple target classes.
Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the initial research collaboration between AstraZeneca and X-Chem will be extended from two to five years.
X-Chem will now conduct drug discovery on a minimum of 10 therapeutic targets per year and the company will receive committed research and development funding for each project from AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca will pay an amount of up to $26m for each of X-Chem's licensed program and additionally, the company will pay significant royalties for each successfully commercialized drug which results from the licensed collaboration program.
AstraZeneca Discovery Sciences vice president Steve Rees noted X-Chem and AstraZeneca have quickly built a strong relationship delivering outcomes that have exceeded the company's expectations.
"We are now committing to a longer-term and broader collaboration that we believe will continue adding value to our core therapeutic portfolio of small molecule drug development programs.
"The novel chemical series discovered by X-Chem have so far enabled three of our therapeutic programs and are continuing to progress within AstraZeneca. We view the X-Chem platform as an important and strategic part of our small molecule discovery strategy," Rees added.
In May 2012, AstraZeneca and X-Chem have entered into a collaboration from which AstraZeneca has recently licensed three drug discovery programs, which are directed at an oncology protein-protein interaction (PPI) target, respiratory/inflammation PPI target, and an antibacterial target.
