Jubilant Biosys in pact with Endo Pharma on cancer drug discovery

Jubilant has signed similar drug discovery services deals with AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Orion and Bio Leap over the last 18 months.

Indian contract research firm Jubilant Biosys Ltd., has entered into a discovery and development collaboration with the US-based Endo Pharmaceuticals on oncology targets identification.

Jubilant Biosys, a subsidiary of Jubilant Organosys Ltd., headquartered in Noida, northern India would collaborate with Endo Pharma to develop a portfolio of targets in the area of oncology, with a focus on delivering preclinical candidates that could be selected for joint clinical development.

As per the terms of the agreement, Endo will own any compounds developed under the collaboration and will be responsible for worldwide commercialization.

Jubilant, in turn, will receive research funding for three years and success-based development milestones and royalties on the successful commercialization of the compounds developed from Endo.

“We anticipate significant rewards on successful development of compounds and its subsequent commercialization,’’ said Shyam S Bhartia, chairman & managing director and Hari S Bhartia, co-chairman & managing director, Jubilant Organosys Ltd in a press statement.

Endo Pharmaceuticals, is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in R&D, sales and marketing of branded and generic medicines in pain management, urology, endocrinology and oncology

Endo’s is probably the fourth discovery collaboration Jubilant enters with a foregin drug maker this year

In May Jubilant Biosys reached a “shared risk-reward” collaboration with AstraZeneca to provide new pre-clinical drug candidates.

The deal enables Jubilant to receive research funding from AstraZeneca for a five-year period.

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.

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 Biosys Ltd and Jubilant Chemsys Ltd entered into three way drug discovery partnership with Orion, a leading pharmaceutical company of Finland in May this year. Under this “Hybrid & Integrated” arrangement, Orion will have the option of utilizing resources flexibly from both Jubilant Biosys Ltd and Jubilant Chemsys Ltd based on the requirements of its drug discovery projects.

In January, Jubilant Biosys Ltd, signed a drug discovery partnership with BioLeap, LLC, USA leading edge computational fragment based drug design platform for integrated pre-clinical drug discovery services from lead identification and optimization to IND (Investigational New Drug) candidate selection, for multiple therapeutic areas.

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.

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.