INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. and LAWRENCE, Kan., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Eli Lilly and Company and privately-held Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, LLC today announced that the two companies have entered into a collaboration and worldwide licensing agreement related to Deciphera’s preclinical B-Raf kinase inhibitor program for the study of potential oncology therapeutics.
The collaboration will apply Deciphera’s phylomechanics discovery platform, a unique, proprietary approach to kinase inhibitor design, together with Lilly’s expertise in discovery, development and commercialization to pursue first-in-class and best-in-class drug candidates for a variety of cancers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly and Deciphera will collaborate in four different project areas involving selective or multi-kinase targeted B-Raf inhibitors. Lilly will obtain exclusive worldwide rights to any products developed as part of this collaboration. In return, Deciphera will receive an upfront payment and research funding over the next two years from Lilly, and may also receive up to $130 million in potential development, regulatory and sales milestones for each of the four project areas. If a product is successfully commercialized from this collaboration, Deciphera will be entitled to royalties on sales.
“This collaboration is further evidence of Lilly’s ongoing commitment to oncology research,” said Dr. William W. Chin, M.D., vice president of discovery research and clinical investigation for Lilly. “We look forward to working with Deciphera to leverage their B-Raf kinase inhibitor program, with the ultimate goal of developing promising drug candidates for cancer patients.”
“The collaboration and license agreement with Lilly marks an important milestone in the growth and development of our company,” said Daniel Flynn, President & CEO of Deciphera. “Lilly’s strength in drug discovery and development, and in particular their commitment to cancer drug research, provides Deciphera with the opportunity to advance our B-Raf kinase ‘switch pocket’ inhibitors into the clinic and ultimately to patients in need of these therapies. We are very pleased to have Lilly as our partner in this endeavor.”
About B-Raf Inhibitors
BRAF kinase is one of the most frequently mutated members of the kinase family across all cancers, and is particularly common in malignant melanomas, colon, and thyroid cancers. The V600E mutant form of BRAF kinase in particular has been associated with increased tumor aggressiveness and decreased survival rates in many types of cancers. Deciphera is pursuing two distinct strategies centered on BRAF inhibition. The first strategy seeks potent and highly selective BRAF inhibitors. The second strategy pursues BRAF inhibitors which also inhibit other kinases of interest.
About Deciphera
Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, LLC was established in 2003 as a drug discovery and development company with the mission to design, optimize and introduce “best-in-class” small molecule switch inhibitors of protein kinases for human clinical trials and the global pharmaceutical marketplace through the use of its proprietary drug discovery technology platform, Phylomechanics. Deciphera’s kinase inhibitors target the mechanisms that render kinases oncogenic, retain potency against gatekeeper mutations, and afford selectivity profiles not easily attained by other approaches. For more information, visit the Company’s website at http://www.deciphera.com/.
About Lilly
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers – through medicines and information – for some of the world’s most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at http://www.lilly.com/.
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This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. Factors that might cause such a difference include, among others, the completion of clinical trials, the FDA and other foreign review processes and other governmental regulation, Lilly’s and Deciphera’s abilities to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, competition from other pharmaceutical companies, the ability to effectively market products, and other factors described in Lilly’s most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward looking statements.
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Eli Lilly and Company
CONTACT: Mark E. Taylor, Lilly, +1-317-276-5795; Daniel L. Flynn,Deciphera, +1-785-838-3767
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