Valeant signs purchase agreement with Ardea

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has signed an asset purchase agreement with Ardea Biosciences, formerly known as IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the agreement, Ardea has acquired a number of assets, data, equipment and intellectual property rights to enable it to progress in three development programmes.

These programmes, all in preclinical development, include the 800 and 900 Series Programmes for the discovery of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), with the potential to treat HIV, and the 100 Series Programme for the discovery of small-molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and inflammation.

Conditional upon the attainment of specific development landmarks, Valeant may receive specific milestone payments of up to $25 million (12.77 million pounds) for compounds from the 800 or 900 Series Programmes and $17 million for compounds from the 100 Series Programme, in addition to royalty payments based on sales.

“For each programme, milestones are paid only once regardless of how many compounds are developed or commercialised,” Ardea reports.

The company added that initial milestone payments will be granted after the completion of proof-of-concept clinical studies, with the majority payable following approval from regulators.

Last month, Valeant reported third quarter revenues of $219.4 million, including products sales of $199.2 million and royalties of $20.2 million.