AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVEO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing cancer therapeutics, today announced it has received a $5 million milestone payment from Biogen Idec International GmbH, a subsidiary of Biogen Idec, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), for the selection of the first humanized antibody development candidate from its ErbB3 program.
“We are very pleased with the progress we have made on the ErbB3 program and the selection of the first development candidate”
"We are very pleased with the progress we have made on the ErbB3 program and the selection of the first development candidate," stated Elan Ezickson, chief business officer of AVEO. "AVEO has built a state-of-the-art antibody drug discovery platform dedicated to the delivery of novel, high-quality oncology antibody drug candidates which has yielded a rich pipeline of product candidates focused on novel targets of growing interest in oncology such as Notch, RON and FGFR. The collaboration with Biogen Idec around the ErbB3 program and our collaboration with Merck on our clinical stage HGF/c-MET product AV-299 represent two of the more than 10 partnerable programs we have generated through our highly efficient and productive platform."
In March 2009, AVEO entered into an exclusive option and license agreement with Biogen Idec International GmbH, a subsidiary of Biogen Idec, regarding the development and commercialization outside of North America of AVEO's discovery-stage ErbB3-targeted antibodies for the potential treatment and diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. Under terms of the agreement, AVEO is responsible for developing ErbB3 antibodies through completion of the proof of concept clinical trial designed to allow dose selection and support generation of efficacy data that would allow movement to a Phase 3 clinical trial. AVEO retains the exclusive right to commercialize ErbB3 antibody products in North America.
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