Syngene inks pact with Innate Pharma

To jointly develop, manufacture & market virulence blockers.

Syngene International, the contract research arm of Bangalore-based biotech major Biocon, has taken a key step into the domain of drug discovery through a collaboration with Innate Pharmaceuticals, Umea, Sweden.

The two will jointly develop, manufacture and market virulence blockers to counteract bacterial diarrhoeal diseases.

Virulence blockers are a new class of drugs that could become an alternative to antibiotics. They disarm certain bacteria, rendering them incapable of causing disease, without affecting the body's normal bacterial flora, thus reducing the risk that the bacteria will develop resistance to the drug.

"Virulence blockers are yet to reach the market, it is crucial that the two companies demonstrate that these drugs can prevent or cure human infectious disease. Clinical studies of therapeutic effect will be conducted over the next three years and a candidate drug will be developed to the stage of a limited Phase II study in patients with diarrhoeal disease," said Dr Goutam Das, chief operating officer, Syngene International.

"Once therapeutic effect is demonstrated, Syngene will carry out further clinical studies enabling the virulence blocker to be registered as a drug for the treatment of bacterial diarrhoeal disease, Innate Pharmaceuticals will have European marketing rights, while Syngene will have rights to other parts of the world market. Each company will receive royalties on the sales conducted by the other," he added. The patent will be jointly held by the two firms.

Diarrhoeal diseases are one of the biggest factors in the global disease burden. There is an extensive medical need for drugs to treat diarrhoeal diseases, which affect over one billion people worldwide every year.

In the US alone, diarrhoeal diseases lead to 1.8 million hospital visits and over 3,000 deaths each year. In India, an estimated 4 lakh deaths occur due to diarrhoeal disease every year.

Besides speeding virulence blockers towards the clinical phase, Syngene's co-operation with Innate Pharmaceuticals reduces the risk exposure and provides the company with the financial capacity to further develop virulence blocking drugs.

Additional resources will also allow Innate to strengthen the patent protection for its virulence blockers.