Astra to back Amgen development

Anglo-Swedish drugs giant AstraZeneca is teaming up with US biotechnology company Amgen to jointly develop and bring to market a portfolio of clinical-stage inflammation treatments.

The pair will work on five monoclonal antibodies from Amgen's clinical inflammation portfolio: AMG 139, AMG 157, AMG 181, AMG 557 and brodalumab (AMG 827).

The collaboration will provide Amgen with additional resources to optimally progress its portfolio, and Amgen will benefit from the strong respiratory, inflammation and asthma development expertise of MedImmune, AstraZeneca's biologics arm. The collaboration will also capitalise on AstraZeneca's global commercial reach in respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. The agreement does not include certain territories previously partnered by Amgen for brodalumab with Kyowa Hakko Kirin and AMG 557 with Takeda.

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Astra is making a one-off $50m upfront payment to get in on the act, after which the two companies will jointly share both costs and profits.

JH