BRIEF—Boehringer inks retinal diseases partnership

Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim and Ireland-based  Inflammasome Therapeutics have entered into a co-development and license agreement to develop up to three therapies for patients with retinal diseases.

By combining Inflammasome’s unique intravitreal (IVT) drug delivery technologies with Boehringer Ingelheim’s compounds from its retinal disease pipeline portfolio, Boehringer aims to develop novel therapies for retinal diseases.

Inflammasome is entitled to receive up to $160 million in up-front, research and development support and milestone gated development payments as well as tiered royalties based on future commercial sales of developed products and other milestones due on commercialization.  

In 2019 there were an estimated 82 million patients in the seven key countries (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, France) affected by one of the three major forms of retinal disease: Age related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic macular edema (DME).