Allergan and Medytox collaborate on neurotoxins

US drugmaker Allergan (NYSE: AGN) has entered into a license agreement with South Korea’s Medytox under the terms of which, on closing, Allergan will pay Medytox an upfront of $65 million and Medytox will grant Allergan exclusive rights, worldwide outside of Korea, to develop and, if approved, commercialize certain neurotoxin product candidates currently in development, including a potential liquid-injectable product.

Allergan has also agreed to make additional contingent payments, including up to an aggregate of $116.5 million upon achieving certain development milestones, up to an aggregate of $180.5 million dependent on achieving certain commercialization milestones, and royalties on product sales.The closing of the transaction is contingent on obtaining certain government approvals. This means that the deal could be worth a total of $362 million to the Korean firm.

Medytox mainly focuses on the development of botulinum toxin products. The company currently has a marketed botulinum toxin product (Neuronox) in its portfolio and is also working on a next generation botulinum toxin product.