A Manchester-based drug discovery company has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with a French pharmaceutical giant worth up to €414m (£360m).
C4X Discovery Holdings, which is listed on AIM, has announced that its subsidiary, C4X Discovery, has made the deal with Sanofi for C4XD's oral pre-clinical IL-17A inhibitor programme.
Under the terms of the agreement, C4XD will receive an upfront payment of €7m and could receive up to a further €407m in potential development, regulatory and commercialisation milestones, of which €11m is in pre-clinical milestones, in addition to single digit royalties.
Under the license, Sanofi will develop and commercialise an oral therapy for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
The IL-17 family of cytokines are strong inducers of inflammation and are implicated in a variety of autoimmune diseases including psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
Current treatments targeting IL-17 are monoclonal antibodies administered via an injection.
C4XD's small molecule IL-17A inhibitor programme can selectively block IL-17 activity in vivo whilst maintaining molecular size of the molecule in the traditional "drug-like" range suitable for oral administration.
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Sanofi will continue to work with the C4XD team to access its 4D Conformetrix technology, as the programme advances towards clinical studies.
C4X Discovery was spun our of the University of Manchester and is based in Manchester One in Portland Street.
Clive Dix, chief executive of C4X Discovery, said: "We are proud to be working with Sanofi to create much needed oral therapies in the underserved inflammatory disease space.
"While antibody therapies have demonstrated the potential of IL-17 inhibition in the generation of highly effective treatments, the injectable route means many patients currently do not have access to the medicines that can change their lives.
"We believe that our small molecule programme has the potential to create high value, efficacious and convenient oral IL-17 therapeutics for this large market.
"The Psoriasis market alone is estimated to be worth c.$24bn per annum by 2027, and when combined with Sanofi's development expertise our programme has the potential to address a number of indications.
"This is the second significant agreement for a C4XD programme and marks a major milestone for the company, not only validating the strength of our drug discovery expertise, but also our strategy to drive shareholder value through early-stage revenue generating deals.
"With Indivior progressing our molecule for opioid addiction through a Phase I clinical trial and now our partnership with Sanofi driving potential next generation oral IL-17 therapies, we look forward with confidence to further develop our portfolio and deliver additional novel small molecule drug candidates tackling significant patient needs."