Syntaxin and Ipsen in up to $99 million collaboration on novel botulinum-toxin therapeutics

French drugmaker Ipsen (Euronext: IPN) has entered into a global strategic collaboration with privately-held UK biotech firm Syntaxin to explore the discovery and development of new compounds in the field of botulinum toxins.

Under the terms of the accord, Syntaxin is eligible to receive technology access fee, full time employee support, and research milestones amounting up to $9 million in the first three years of the collaboration. Syntaxin could also get additional license fees, development and regulatory milestones and potentially over $90 million of commercial milestones together with royalties on net sales. In exchange, Ipsen will have exclusive worldwide development and commercialisation rights to the programmes discovered within the scope of the collaboration.

Syntaxin and Ipsen will leverage their respective expertise in the field of botulinum toxin, with the UK firm responsible for the discovery of new therapeutic candidates and Ipsen will apply its skills to pharmacological, preclinical and clinical assessments of the newly discovered compounds.