Lupin and AbbVie in pacht to develop and commercialize novel oncology drugs

Lupin Ltd. and global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc., have announced that AbbVie has licensed Lupin’s MALT1 (Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma Translocation Protein 1) inhibitor program. 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 and AbbVie intends to pursue development across a range of hematological cancers, many with limited current treatment options.

“We are very pleased to partner with AbbVie who share a commitment to deliver high quality medicines in areas that lack approved treatment and have a dire medical need. Their proven success in rapidly commercializing new targeted oncology treatments made them our partner of choice for this program,” Mr. Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin Limited said. According to Dr. Raj Kamboj, President of Lupin’s Novel Drug Discovery and Development (NDDD), “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 MALT1 program is exploring a new and innovative approach in difficult-totreat cancers. 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,” Mr. Tom Hudson, M.D., Vice President, Discovery, AbbVie commented.

Terms of agreement

Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will pay Lupin an upfront payment of $30-mn 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-mn. 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.

Lupin’s Novel Drug Discovery and Development team is focused on building a pipeline of highly differentiated and innovative new chemical entities in the therapeutic areas of oncology, immunology and metabolic disorders. Lupin’s NDDD activities were started in 2010 with the vision to use cutting-edge research in bringing novel molecules that address unmet medical needs in multiple therapeutic areas to market globally.