AstraZeneca is making good on its ambitions to pursue novel avenues for respiratory therapies with a deal with Boston-based biotech Pieris Pharmaceuticals to develop inhaled drugs based on its Anticalin platform of engineered proteins that mimic the actions of antibodies.
Under the new collaboration, AstraZeneca will make upfront and near-term milestone payments to Pieris totalling $57.5m; the biotech's shares on NASDAQ rose by more than 42% to $3.43 on the news on 3 May
Pieris has committed to advancing this lead candidate, PRS-060, which targets IL-4Rα, into Phase I this year. AstraZeneca will fund all clinical development from Phase IIa onwards and subsequent commercialisation programmes but Pieris keeps an option for co-development and co-commercialisation in the US