FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc (SAN FRANCISCO, California), a privately held protein therapeutics discovery and development company, announced the signing of a worldwide collaborative research and license agreement with Centocor, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to discover therapeutic products to treat osteoarthritis (OA) and pulmonary fibrosis. Under the collaboration, FivePrime will screen its comprehensive protein library against cell-based assays directed to OA and fibrosis and Centocor will have exclusive rights to the proteins and targets identified in these screens.
FivePrime will receive an upfront payment of $15 million, comprised of cash and an equity investment by Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), and 2 years' research funding from Centocor. Centocor will have exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize products and targets discovered during the research term in exchange for future milestones and royalties. Further details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Earlier this year, FivePrime initiated a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc, in the field of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Potentially worth over $75 million to FivePrime should all milestones be achieved, FivePrime received an upfront payment and funding for research activities, and Boehringer Ingelheim obtained exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize products and targets discovered in return for future milestone payments and royalties based on sales.
The basis for both collaborations is FivePrime's comprehensive, rapid protein discovery system. FivePrime's protein screening library contains essentially all human secreted proteins and their receptors, including many that are unavailable in public collections. Using its automated system, FivePrime can screen its complete set of human secreted proteins in medically relevant, cell-based assays in three new clinical indications every 4 months. Using technologies for rapid in vivo validation of hits from its screens, FivePrime aims to reduce the time interval between an idea and an investigational new drug to less than 3 years.
In addition to specific, targeted screens in intestinal bowel disease, lupus, OA, and RA, FivePrime is developing screens in areas such as modulation of T-regulatory cells and macrophage subsets. FivePrime's lead product in immunology, FPT025, is a novel secreted cytokine that was identified in an assay designed to find factors that would enhance the proliferation or survival of monocytes. Unrelated to any known classes of cytokines, FPT025 expands monocytes and is involved in early differentiation of dendritic cells. The receptor for FPT025 was identified by FivePrime by screening the extracellular domains of the receptors in its protein library. Research is underway to evaluate FPT025's immunomodulatory potential in oncology, inflammation, and infectious disease.
Founded in December 2001 by Dr. Lewis Williams (former head of Chiron R&D and cofounder of Cor Therapeutics), FivePrime has raised over $85 million in capital to date and is backed by well known investors including Domain Associates LLC, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Versant Ventures Management LLC, Advanced Technology Ventures, the JP Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund, and Singapore BioInnovations Pte. Ltd.
—A. Techman
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