Nicholas in drug deal with Eli Lilly

Domestic pharma firm inks first-of-its-kind pact.

Nicholas Piramal India (NPIL) has signed a first-of-its-kind new drug development agreement with Eli Lilly where the global pharma major has in-licensed its new metabolic disorder drug molecule to NPIL for further research and development.

On successful development, NPIL will have rights to commercialise the drug in certain markets also.

This is the first time a multinational drug company is in-licensing a drug candidate to an Indian company on revenue-sharing basis. The new collaboration is expected to begin a new trend in collaborative research in drugs and pharmaceuticals.

"It is a unique model being experimented for the first time in the world. While we have success stories among Indian companies to have developed new drug molecules to be out-licensed for further development to global pharma majors, this is a reverse process where we are taking up a drug for further development from a multinational drug firm," Swati Piramal, director - strategic alliances and communications, NPIL, said.

According to her, the model, if successful, would serve as a prototype for joint development of several pre-clinical drug candidates from Lilly in multiple therapeutic areas in future.

Lilly has already $35 million on developing this molecule. It is our responsibility now to go further and do toxicology studies, and all phases of clinical trials, she said.

NPIL will be responsible for the design and execution of the global clinical development programme, including IND-enabling non-clinical studies and human clinical trials up to phase III.

The company would receive a call-back payment, and potential milestone payments of up to $100 million, plus royalties on sales upon successful launch of the first compound.

While the company will not have any similar arrangement with other companies on the same therapeutic segment, it is open for collaborations in other segments, Piramal added.

Nicholas Piramal is one of the leading domestic pharmaceutical companies that is into a collaborative business model with multinational companies.

NPIL already has contract research and manufacturing agreements with eight top global pharmaceutical companies.