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KuDOS/Novacea: Pooling Biotech Resources

 
• By Hazel Dawson

KuDOS Pharmaceuticals' first out-licensing deal appears disappointing: the UK biotech has neither signed an established cancer player nor secured a significant upfront fee for its potentially first-in-class cancer compound, in a hot area of research. But the point of the deal is not to bolster KuDOS' cash coffers, rather, to combine the resources of two biotechs to investigate the drug's potential in a broader range of indications than either company could do alone.

In December 2003, eight-year old biotech KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd. struck its first licensing deal, granting North American (US, Canadian and Mexican) commercialization and development rights over its promising Phase I anti-cancer compound AQ4N to US biotech Novacea Inc.[See Deal]. In return, KuDOS gets an apparently small payment to contribute to Phase I and IND filing-related costs, and undisclosed milestone and royalty payments on eventual sales. Both companies will also share manufacturing costs.

The deal seemed disappointing at first: too early stage to generate much value for the company and without significant upfront...

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