AbbVie, Lupin to Partner on Blood Cancer Drug

On Dec. 24, 2018, AbbVie and Lupin, a Mumbai, India-based provider of pharmaceutical formulations, biotechnology products, and APIs, announced that AbbVie has licensed Lupin’s mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) inhibitor program to treat hematological cancers.

Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will pay Lupin an upfront payment of $30 million for an exclusive license to the program. Upon successful completion of regulatory, development, and commercial milestones, Lupin is eligible to receive total milestone payments of up to $947 million. Additionally, Lupin will be entitled to receive a double-digit royalty on the sales of the product and will retain commercial rights to the program in India.

Through this partnership, AbbVie gains exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize Lupin’s MALT1 inhibitors. MALT-1 is a protein involved in T-cell and B-cell lymphocyte activation. AbbVie intends to pursue development across a range of hematological cancers, many with limited current treatment options.

“Lupin’s MALT1 program is exploring a new and innovative approach in difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Tom Hudson, MD, vice president, Discovery, AbbVie, in a company press release. “AbbVie is committed to pursuing advanced treatment options for patients and we look forward to partnering our expertise in hematological oncology with Lupin’s discovery program to offer new hope to patients.”

“We are delighted with the success of our [Novel Drug Discovery and Development] (NDDD) program to bring India’s first pharmaceutical innovation in this space,” added Dr. Raj Kamboj, president of Lupin’s NDDD, in the release. “This is a first-in-class drug discovery program delivered exclusively by Lupin right from concept generation through the various stages of drug discovery and development.”

Lupin’s NDDD team is focused on building a pipeline of new chemical entities in the therapeutic areas of oncology, immunology, and metabolic disorders.

Source: Lupin