Ireland's Shire spends US$225 million to acquire orphan drug AGT-182

Source: China Council for the promotion of drugs July 24, 2014: Irish specialty drug company shire Inc announced on Wednesday that it has reached a global license and cooperation agreement with U.S biotechnology company armagen on the experimental drug agt-182, which will spend US $225 million to purchase enzyme replacement therapy agt-182 from U.S biomedical company armagen For the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) and somatic symptoms caused by Hunt's syndrome Under the terms of the agreement, shire will pay armagen $225 million to acquire the global commercial rights of agt-182 As part of the agreement, armagen will be responsible for conducting and completing a phase I / II clinical study of agt-182, which is scheduled to be officially launched by the end of 2014 Shire will then be responsible for further clinical development, clinical research and product marketing, including phase III clinical and product commercialization Agt-182 is an experimental enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) Agt-182 is made by fusing the substitutive IDS enzyme with an antibody that can bind to the receptor on the blood-brain barrier (BBB) Agt-182 will be developed for potential treatment of central nervous system and somatic symptoms in Hunter syndrome Previously, the FDA and the European Union have granted agt-182 orphan drug status The collaboration will strengthen shire's innovative R & D pipeline in the field of rare diseases, and also highlight the company's long-term commitment to the patient population of Hunt's syndrome Shire's drug elaprase was approved by FDA in 2006 for the treatment of Hunt's syndrome It is the first approved drug for the treatment of Hunt's syndrome in the world At present, shire is also developing another experimental drug shp-609, which is currently in phase II clinical practice and is developed for the treatment of central nervous system symptoms in patients with Hunt's syndrome Agt-182 is expected to become an important new product of shire's Hunt syndrome project Meanwhile, shire plans to generate $3 billion in revenue from its rare diseases business by 2020 In the middle of this month, abbvie has reached a US $54.7 billion acquisition agreement with shire, and is equally optimistic about the future of shire's rare diseases business The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, when the combined new company will have a market value of $137 billion and will have 9 R & D centers and 14 production bases around the world, employing more than 30000 people This paper is based on the translation of Biovalley and great wisdom articles.