AVANIR Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery and development company, announced the signing of an agreement with Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp to develop orally active small molecule therapeutics targeting macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory cytokine that is thought to play a critical role in the pathology of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

MIF, expressed constitutively in a wide variety of inflammatory cells and elevated in a number of inflammatory diseases, is thought to suppress the anti-inflammatory steroid response in addition to regulating tumor necrosis TNF-alpha (TNF-α) and macrophage migration. AVANIR has identified a series of potent, orally bioavailable, small molecule compounds that inhibit MIF, lower TNF-α serum levels, and possess antiarthritic activity in an animal model of arthritis.

AVANIR would receive over $200 million in combined upfront and milestone payments should certain development, regulatory, and sales objectives be achieved. Novartis will assume all responsibility for product development expenses.