Jubilant Bio, AstraZeneca in pre-clinical drug research pact

The risk-reward model will initially focus on the neuroscience segment.

Jubilant Biosys has reached a pact with AstraZeneca to provide new pre-clinical drug candidates.

The Jubilant-AstraZeneca deal will be “shared risk-reward” collaboration model. Jubilant Biosys will initially focus on the neuroscience area and deliver a steady stream of discovery programmes to AstraZeneca, the company said in a press statement.

“We are very pleased to partner with AstraZeneca, this collaboration will leverage the innovative capabilities of AstraZeneca and Jubilant Biosys in providing a robust global drug discovery model. Through this partnership, Jubilant is confident of contributing to AstraZeneca’s pre-clinical portfolio and anticipates significant rewards from successful downstream milestones,” said Mr. Hari S Bhartia, co-chairman & managing director, Jubilant Organosys Ltd.

The Jubilant-AstraZeneca partnership model furthers Jubilant’s strategy to be India’s largest provider of innovative and integrated pharmaceutical solutions, enabling the global pharmaceutical industry’s quest to discover affordable innovative medicines, he added.

As per the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca will have the worldwide development and commercialization rights of the compounds developed under the collaboration.

“This collaboration complements our internal capabilities and increases the capacity of our pre-clinical programs. It is a concrete example of the innovative approaches we are taking to deliver a sustainable Discovery pipeline with a lean and agile organization. Ultimately, this will provide us with more shots on goal as we look to sustain a competitive portfolio and provide meaningful medicines to patients,” commented Jan Lundberg, executive vice-president, Global Discovery, at AstraZeneca.

Jubilant will be eligible to receive research funding spanning an initial five-year period. In addition, AstraZeneca will also pay Jubilant success-based development milestones, as well as royalties based on successful global commercialization of any of the compounds.

Jubilant will potentially earn up to $220 million in research and milestone fees from the collaboration. Of this, Jubilant Organosys Ltd  will get about $20 million as a definite payment from AstraZeneca, with an annual payment of about $3 million coming in the first two years initially, stated Sankaraiah, executive director-Finance.

In October 2008, Jubilant Organosys and The US firm Eli Lilly entered into an agreement to form an equally-owned joint venture in India. The joint venture was to provide drug development services on pre-clinical molecules and their development through Phase II clinical testing, before returning successful molecules to the Eli Lilly for further development. The deal was an expansion of an earlier five-year drug discovery tie-up, struck between Eli Lilly and Jubilant in 2006.

Similarly, Jubilant Biosys announced a drug discovery partnership with global biotechnology major Amgen in July 2008. Under the agreement, Jubilant will develop early pre-clinical candidates coming out of Amgen’s early discovery efforts for an initial term of three years. Amgen will have right for the subsequent pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation.

Global drug firms, reeling under the onslaught of generic competition and a thin new-drug pipeline, continue to outsource new drug development to low-cost destinations such as India to help reduce the long timeline and high costs of drug development, analysts said.

Jubilant Biosys Ltd., a subsidiary of Jubilant Organosys Ltd, provides integrated drug discovery and development solutions to the global pharmaceutical industry. Jubilant Biosys has a state of the art facility in Bangalore. The center houses over 300 scientists specializing in multiple disciplines to include Discovery biology, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, pharmacology, toxicology, pharma chem, molecular modeling, crystallography and information technology supporting discovery efforts.

Jubilant Organosys Ltd, is one of the largest custom research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) and drug discovery and development services companies from India. The company has a presence across the pharmaceutical value chain for products and services such as proprietary products ,exclusive synthesis, active pharmaceutical ingredients, contract manufacturing of sterile injectables (liquids and lyophilized) products, non-steriles (ointments, creams and liquid) and radiopharmaceuticals, drug discovery services, medicinal chemistry services, clinical research services, generic dosage forms and healthcare.

AstraZeneca is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US$ 31.6 billion and is a leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infectious disease medicines.