Astellas Phama and Maxygen announce global agreement

Astellas Pharma and Maxygen have signed a global agreement regarding the commercialisation rights to the MAXY-4 drug candidates for autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection.

Under the terms of the deal, both companies will develop the compounds for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions, while Astellas will develop the compounds for transplant rejection.

Astellas will pay Maxygen an initial fee of $10 million (5.5 million pounds) and will provide the same amount to fund preclinical costs, after which the firms will share this expenditure.

The MAXY-4 preclinical programme from Maxygen aims to create a next-generation CTLA4-Ig protein in these conditions.

Astellas will manufacture the finished product using active drug substances from Maxygen regardless of indication and will also sell the product worldwide.

Maxygen retains an option to co-promote autoimmune therapeutic drugs in North America.

Hirofumi Onosaka, senior corporate executive at Astellas, said: “I believe that Maxygen has a very strong suite of technologies to develop improved versions of protein drugs.”

He added the company is dedicated to strengthening immunology as one of its prioritised therapeutic areas.

In November 2007, Maxygen and Roche terminated their development of Maxy-alpha after a pause in its development programme.