Phylogica signs deal with Johnson & Johnson unit

Australian peptide drug discovery company Phylogica (ASX: PYC) has entered into a collaboration and option agreement with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), to discover new classes of drugs derived from Phylogica’s Phylomer peptide platform.

Under the terms of this multi-product accord, Phylogica will receive an initial technology access fee as well as research funding over the first 18 months of the collaboration. Pending ongoing discussions with Janssen regarding commercial terms, Phylogica could receive further research funding, license fees, milestone payments and royalties on worldwide sales. Further financial terms were not disclosed.

With the addition of Janssen, Phylogica has signed deals with four of the top five global pharmaceutical companies; and has made demonstrable progress over the last 12 months with all its collaborative discovery programs, the Australian firm stated.