AstraZeneca, POZEN progress arthritis pain drug
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) said on Friday it was starting final Phase III clinical trials of an experimental treatment for arthritis pain with U.S. partner POZEN Inc (POZN.O).
AstraZeneca also said the two firms had changed the terms of their August 2006 licensing agreement, with AstraZeneca now due to pay up to $345 million in development, regulatory and sales milestone payments, up from $335 million previously.
POZEN shares were hit hard last month when U.S. regulators delayed approving Trexima, an experimental migraine drug it is developing with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), for a second time.
AstraZeneca said the two firms expect to submit the drug for arthritis pain, codenamed PN400, for assessment by U.S. regulators in the first half of 2009.
More than 60 million patients in the United States and Europe suffer from rheumatoid and osteo-arthritis, with 59 percent of all people over 65 in the United States suffering from arthritis, AstraZeneca said.
PN400 combines AstraZeneca's multibillion-dollar-a-year stomach acid inhibitor Nexium with the pain reliever naproxen.
The drug would give AstraZeneca a Nexium-related product with a patent that would last some nine years beyond its patent as a stomach acid inhibitor.
POZEN believes the drug will eventually fill a void left by the withdrawal of Merck & Co.'s (MRK.N) $2.5 billion-a-year pain drug Vioxx over heart safety concerns and the steep decline in use of other drugs from the class known as Cox-2 inhibitors.
AstraZeneca, which has made a string of deals in an attempt to rebuild a drugs pipeline ravaged by failures in clinical trials, said it would pay $30 million immediately to POZEN following the successful completion of proof of concept studies, up from the previously planned payment of $20 million.
It will then pay $55 million upon achievement of development and regulatory milestones and $260 million in sales milestones.
The two firms had originally agreed that AstraZeneca would pay $160 million in development and regulatory milestones and up to $175 million in sales performance milestones.
At 0945 GMT, AstraZeneca shares were down 0.9 percent at 2,404 pence, valuing the business at about 36 billion pounds
($73 billion).
((Reporting by Mark Potter, Editing by Quentin Bryar
Reuters Messaging: rm://mark.potter.reuters.com@reuters.net
Tel: +44 20 7542 7717, Fax: +44 20 7542 9025))
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