Lupin and AbbVie announces partnership to develop, commercialize Novel Oncology Drug

Mumbai: Pharma major Lupin and global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc., 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 haematological cancers, many with limited current treatment options.

Commenting on the development, Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin Limited said, "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. 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."

Commenting on the partnership announcement, Dr Raj Kamboj, President of Lupin's Novel Drug Discovery and Development (NDDD) stated, "We are delighted with the success of our NDDD program to bring India's first pharmaceutical innovation in this space. This is a first-in-class drug discovery program delivered exclusively by Lupin right from concept generation through the various stages of drug discovery and development. We are proud of the conceptualization, strategic direction and impeccable execution are done by the team at Lupin that meets the global standard of pharmaceutical research."

Tom Hudson, M.D., Vice President, Discovery, AbbVie commented, "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 haematological oncology with Lupin's discovery program to offer new hope to patients."

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 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.