Lupin Limited and AbbVie announced that AbbVie has licensed Lupin’s MALT1 (Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma Translocation Protein 1) inhibitor program. Through this partnership, AbbVie gains exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize Lupin’s MALT1 inhibitors. MALT-1 is a protein involved in T-cell and B-cell lymphocyte activation and AbbVie intends to pursue development across a range of hematological cancers, many with limited current treatment options.
“Delivering on new drugs was a key element of Dr. Deshbandhu Gupta’s vision. We are extremely proud of being able to realize his vision to bring new treatments to patients in need,” Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin Limited said. “We are very pleased to partner with AbbVie who share a commitment to deliver high quality medicines in areas that lack approved treatment and have a dire medical need. Their proven success in rapidly commercializing new targeted oncology treatments made them our partner of choice for this program.”
Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will pay Lupin an upfront payment of US$ 30 million for an exclusive license to the program. Upon successful completion of regulatory, development and commercial milestones, Lupin is eligible to receive total milestone payments of up to US$ 947 million. Additionally, Lupin will be entitled to receive a double-digit royalty on the sales of the product and will retain commercial rights to the program in India.
“Lupin’s MALT1 program is exploring a new and innovative approach in difficult-to-treat cancers. AbbVie is committed to pursuing advanced treatment options for patients and we look forward to partnering our expertise in hematological oncology with Lupin’s discovery program to offer new hope to patients,” Tom Hudson, M.D., Vice President, Discovery, AbbVie said.
Lupin’s Novel Drug Discovery and Development team is focused on building a pipeline of highly differentiated and innovative new chemical entities in the therapeutic areas of Oncology, Immunology and Metabolic disorders. Lupin’s NDDD activities were started in 2010 with the vision to use cutting-edge research in bringing novel molecules that address unmet medical needs in multiple therapeutic areas to market globally.