UCB to license new Parkinson’s disease therapy from Biotie

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

UCB Pharma has announced it has licensed worldwide exclusive rights to Biotie Therapies’ tozadenant (SYN115), which is a selective inhibitor of the adenosine 2a receptor. Tozadenant is currently in development for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Under terms of the agreement, Biotie will receive a US $20 million license fee payment from UCB. In addition, the two companies have amended their original license agreement initiated in 2010. Now, Biotie will conduct phase 3 clinical trials of tozadenant in return for additional payments from UCB relating to defined development, regulatory and commercialization milestones.

Patient enrolment in the phase 3 program is currently planned to commence by the first half of 2015.

"UCB is committed to improving the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease and currently provides Neupro® a transdermal dopamine agonist for the symptomatic treatment of all stages of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Biotie is a valuable partner and the decision to in-license follows the positive top-line results of the phase 2b study. We were impressed by the performance of Biotie and decided that they are the ideal party to continue to spearhead the development of tozadenant. We look forward to collaborating with Biotie in the on-going clinical development. With the addition of the novel compound tozadenant to UCB’s development portfolio we should be able to further contribute to the advancement of the treatment and care for people living with Parkinson’s disease."

Professor Dr Iris Loew-Friedrich, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President UCB.

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disease. It is commonly associated with movement (motor) symptoms such as tremors (uncontrollable shaking), rigidity (stiffness or muscle tensing) and bradykinesia (slowness and loss of spontaneous movement), but also commonly causes underlying symptoms such as mood and cognitive impairment, pain, depression and fatigue.

Approximately seven to 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.