Five Prime Therapeutics announced UCB has elected to exclusively license an undisclosed drug target for inflammatory diseases. Five Prime identified the target using its discovery platform.
“Our unique discovery platform is proving to be a drug target discovery engine, as evidenced by UCB’s decision to license a target we found through our customized in vivo screens and jointly developed cell based screens,” said Aron Knickerbocker, chief executive officer of Five Prime Therapeutics. “UCB is a leader in the research and development of biologics and brings tremendous expertise to this collaboration. We believe that our powerful platform is well suited to finding new pathways in complex diseases, and we’re pleased that our efforts led to the identification of a new target to help support UCB’s goal to improve the lives of people living with serious diseases.”
Five Prime identified the undisclosed target under the strategic collaboration established in March 2013 with UCB for the discovery of innovative biologics targets and therapeutics. Five Prime conducted five customized cell-based and in vivo screens of its protein libraries under the collaboration. In the course of screening its protein libraries in the collaboration, Five Prime identified proteins that may be potential drug targets or drug candidates for inflammatory diseases.
Under the collaboration, Five Prime is eligible to receive potential future development, regulatory and sales-based milestones payments, as well as potential royalties on net sales.