Ipsen and Santhera restructure fipamezole licensing arrangement

Ipsen has announced that it will be restructuring its licensing agreement with Santhera Pharmaceuticals for fipamezole, a promising new therapy for dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease.

The new arrangement will see Ipsen return its rights to develop and commercialise the treatment in territories outside of North America and Japan, in return for milestone payments and royalties based on its future commercial success.

Ipsen will retain a call option for worldwide licensing for the programme under certain conditions, which would see Santhera becoming eligible for performance-based fees.

Pierre Boulud, Ipsen's executive vice-president for corporate strategy, said the new deal will allow Ipsen to focus on its own late-stage pipeline, while ensuring the benefits of fipamezole are still realised.

"Santhera's commitment to this first-in-class drug has the potential to benefit levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease patients in crucial need of better therapies," he explained.

This comes after Ipsen agreed a new Parkinson's-related collaboration with Oncodesign earlier this month.