Boulder-based Array BioPharma landed $10 million after reaching a clinical research milestone in a licensing agreement with biotech Celgene Corp., officials for the local bioscience company announced Tuesday.
Array notched the milestone for its ARRY-382, a small molecule cFMS inhibitor. The company expects to start testing it in cancer patients during a Phase 1 trial in the first quarter of next year, officials said.
Array is responsible for development efforts through Phase 1 trials. If Summit, N.J.-based Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG, $59.38) elects to obtain exclusive rights to the program, it would then be responsible for further development and commercialization — efforts under which Array could receive additional milestone payments and royalties.
Array, which employs 350 people in Boulder, could receive as much as $500 million if certain discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestones are met, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Our partnership with Array reflects the important role the cFMS pathway plays in cancer,” Dr. Tom Daniel, Celgene’s president of research and early development, said in a statement. “Array has expeditiously delivered this promising new agent to (the FDA’s Investigational New Drug application) and we look forward to evaluating its activity in cancer patients as we continue our ongoing collaboration on additional targets.”
Celgene and Array began the global drug discovery and development partnership in September 2007. At the time, Celgene had an option to choose two of four mutually agreed-upon discovery targets for potential development and commercialization.
Those two targets could each result in potential payments to Array of $200 million if certain discovery, development and regulatory milestones were met and an additional $300 million if certain commercial milestones were met — a total of $1 billion.
Last year, Celgene waived its rights to one of the programs. As a result, Array officials expect Celgene to exercise its license with one of the three remaining programs, according to SEC filings.
The Celgene collaboration accounted for 22.3 percent of Array’s $18.5 million revenue during the three-month period that ended on Sept. 30, according to Array’s most-recent quarterly filing with the SEC.
Shares of Array (Nasdaq: ARRY) dropped one penny, or 0.3 percent, to $3.21 on Tuesday.
Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at 303-473-1332 or wallacea@dailycamera.com
