Endo and Orion enter oncology R&D collaboration

Endo Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ENDP) announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with European-based Orion Corporation for the discovery, development and commercialization of assets in Oncology.

The formation of this R&D collaboration partnership allows the companies to bring forward a total of eight "discovery phase" candidates by combining an equal number of programs. The collaboration also allows both companies to exclusively license the others' development-ready programs at pre-determined stages and share all development costs.

"This alliance marks another milestone in the transformation of Endo's R&D platform," said Dr. Ivan Gergel M.D., executive vice president, Research & Development at Endo Pharmaceuticals. "We are excited about this opportunity to collaborate with an experienced partner like Orion and look forward to continuing to bring new therapies and healthcare solutions to payers, physicians and patients. This type of collaboration fits well  into our new, efficient and effective virtual R&D model."

Dr. Reijo Salonen, senior vice president of Orion Corporation's Research and Development, commented: "I am very pleased with the collaboration agreement with Endo. This will immediately extend the Oncology R&D pipelines of both companies. The agreement is also perfectly in line with Orion's  R&D strategy to  focus on risk-sharing partnerships. We look forward to developing new cancer therapies for the patients jointly with Endo."

The companies will co-develop the assets coming out of this collaboration and share all development costs.  Orion will have marketing rights in Europe, including Russia, while Endo will retain marketing rights for North America. The companies will pay cross royalties to each other on sales from their respective territories, and will mutually decide the most effective method to maximize product opportunities in rest of world (ROW) territories after phase II and share ROW revenues. With the establishment of the partnership Endo has exercised its option to license the lead asset in this collaboration discovered at Orion, a novel androgen-receptor antagonist for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, which will be developed jointly by both companies for approval globally. It will be entering into phase one clinical trials in the near future.