Wyeth Pharmaceuticals collaborates with Trubion

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is to form a strategic alliance with Trubion Pharmaceuticals.

The aim of the collaboration is to develop and commercialise new biopharmaceutical products to treat inflammatory disease and cancer using Trubion’s Small Modular Immunopharmaceutical (SMIP) technology.

Wyeth has initially paid $40 million but it is calculated that the total payments could reach over $800 million, excluding royalties and co-promotion fees, if Trubion meets certain development milestones.

Wyeth and Trubion are to work together on the development and commercialisation of CD20-targeted therapies including TRU-015, a SMIP compound currently in phase II clinical development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Robert Ruffolo, president of Wyeth Research and Development, said: “Wyeth is excited about the development of TRU-015 for RA as well as the potential application of TRU-015 in other chronic inflammatory and B cell mediated diseases.

“We are proud to partner with Trubion because of the high quality of their science in an area that matches well with two of Wyeth’s key therapeutic areas ? inflammation and oncology.”

Trubion president and CEO Dr Peter A. Thompson added: “We look forward to working with Wyeth both to maximize the commercial potential of TRU-015 and to leverage the productivity of Trubion’s SMIP technology platform.

“Trubion chose Wyeth for this collaboration because of its leadership in the field of rheumatoid arthritis, bioprocess development and its success in the commercialization of biopharmaceuticals.”

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