Amgen Enters into Research Collaboration with Arrakis | Business Journal San Fernando Valley
Friday January 14th 2022
Amgen Inc. and Arrakis Therapeutics this week announced a collaboration aimed at discovering and developing therapeutics for a range of difficult-to-treat diseases.
Under the terms of the agreement, Arrakis will receive $75 million in upfront payments from pharmaceutical company Thousand Oaks for five initial programs. Amgen will also have the opportunity to nominate additional programs.
Arrakis is eligible to receive additional payments from Amgen for pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as low double-digit royalties. The Massachusetts-based therapeutics company could potentially receive billions of dollars in future payments as each milestone is met and future program options are exercised.
“We are excited to be collaborating with Amgen’s strong research team to pursue a common goal of creating a new class of drugs that induce degradation of disease-causing RNAs,” said Dr. Arrakis Chief Executive Michael Gilman in a statement. “This collaboration further demonstrates the utility of our proprietary rSM discovery platform for small molecule RNA targeting and paves the way for the development of powerful new treatments for patients.”
Shares of Amgen closed down $4.51, or nearly 2 percent, at $235.36 on Nasdaq Friday, a day that saw the market close a fraction of a percent.
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