Recent Tech Transfer Deals (4/2009)

March—Alnara Pharmaceuticals (looking to develop protein medicines) has received exclusive worldwide rights to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics's Phase III pancreatic enzyme replacement treatment liprotamase, which represents the start-up's first clinical candidate.

CFFT is providing Alnara with $3mm in funding to complete the ongoing Phase III trial. Alnara will file the NDA and market the product, which will be used to treat malabsorption of nutrients caused by pancreatic insufficiency, a deficiency that presents in cystic fibrosis, pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, and Shwachman-Diamond syndrome. Liprotamase, a blend of lipase, protease, and amylase, has an advantage over other pancreatic enzyme replacement therapies because it is not obtained from porcine extracts and therefore doesn't contain the dozen or so irrelevant proteins found in Solvay's Creon or other porcine-derived medications. Because of the extra proteins, these drugs have to taken in multiple doses in order to be effective. Altus originally discovered liprotamase (which in the past has been called ALTU135, Trizytek, and TheraCLEC-Total) and developed it under a 2001 collaboration with CFFT. But at the beginning of this year, the biotech discontinued work on the candidate and transferred rights to CFFT in order to focus on other projects. (For a few years, Dr. Falk Pharma had European rights, but returned its license in 2007