Morphic Therapeutic Partners with AbbVie in Collaboration for Oral Integrin Therapeutics for Fibrosis-Related Indications
October 18, 2018
Dechert advised Morphic Therapeutic, a biotechnology company, in its partnership with AbbVie, a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, in a research and development collaboration designed to advance a number of Morphic's oral integrin therapeutics for fibrosis-related indications. AbbVie will pay Morphic an upfront payment of US$100 million for exclusive license options on product candidates directed at multiple targets.
Morphic Therapeutic has developed a unique platform for designing integrin oral inhibitors to block TGF-β activation, thought to be a key approach to halt or reverse fibrosis, in a tissue-specific manner. For each compound, Morphic will conduct R&D activities through the completion of Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies, at which point AbbVie may pay a license fee to exercise its exclusive license option and assume responsibility for global development and commercialization. Morphic also retains the option to share development costs with AbbVie on liver fibrosis indications, in exchange for enhanced royalties.
The Dechert team advising Morphic included corporate partner David Schulman, intellectual property partner Thomas Rayski, corporate associate Mina Miljevic, tax partner Joshua Milgrim, and antitrust/competition partner Craig Falls and associate Beverly Ang.
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