Halozyme, Janssen Link To Develop Subcutaneous Drugs
Halozyme Therapeutics announced that it has signed up with Janssen Biotech in a global collaboration to develop and market Janssen's subcutaneous treatments using the former's ENHANZE technology.
ENHANZE is based on a proprietary recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme (rHuPH20) that temporarily alters hyaluronan in order to increase the efficacy of injected drugs. rHuPH20 has proved its ability to remove traditional limitations on the volume of biologics administered intravenously. The enzyme enables some biologics and compounds to be injected just under the skin instead of intravenously, potentially shortening administration times and cutting down on the number of injections. Indeed, early this year, Halozyme announced the positive recommendation of the European Medicine Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for its partner Roche's subcutaneous (SC) formulation of MabThera (rituximab) as treatment for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Roche's MabThera SC formulation was made using Halozyme's rHuPH20.
Under the terms of the agreement, Janssen gains global license to develop and commercialize products combining its compounds with Halozyme's rHuPH20 for up to five therapeutic targets. Janssen will pay an upfront fee of $15 million. Halozyme will be eligible to receive additional milestone payments of up to $566 million based on the achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales goals.
Dr.Helen Torley, President and CEO of Halozyme, said, “We are pleased that Janssen... has selected our ENHANZE technology to further augment their development pipeline. This new global licensing agreement further validates our ENHANZE platform technology, which we believe may benefit a growing number of patients worldwide by making therapies more convenient.”
Janssen has been fishing for promising technologies to advance its own pipeline into further development. Similar to its agreement with Halozyme, Janssen also inked a deal earlier this year with Aduro Biotech to develop immunotherapies against lung cancer using the latter's LADD immunotherapy platform.