Janssen exercises option for X-Chem program

US privately held biotech company X-Chem says that a licensing option with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), has been exercised for a protein inhibitor program of inflammatory disease.

The licensed program comprises cell-active, potent small molecules that inhibit a difficult-to-drug protein ligand-receptor interaction. Janssen exercised its license option under an agreement to discover new treatments for inflammatory disease established by the companies in December 2014. The licensing event triggers a milestone payment under the collaboration agreement; X-Chem, which was spun out from parent company is Pharmaceutical Product Development last year, is eligible to receive future payments linked to the achievement of defined milestones, as well as royalties.

Under the 2014 agreement, facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the two companies have focused on the discovery and development of candidate molecules for the treatment of inflammatory diseases leveraging the application of X-Chem’s proprietary discovery engine, powered by a unique high diversity DNA-encoded small molecule library, to identify novel compounds targeting proteins involved in the inflammatory response.