Meiji Seika Granted Rights to Develop and Commercialize Products in
Asian Territory; ACADIA Retains All Rights in the Rest of the World
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACAD) and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd.
(TSE:2202) today announced that they have established a collaboration to
develop and commercialize a novel class of pro-cognitive drugs to treat
patients with schizophrenia and related disorders in Japan and several
other Asian countries. The collaboration will focus on developing a
product candidate, which was discovered by ACADIA and has been nominated
by the parties for IND-track development.
“We are very pleased to be working with ACADIA having strong expertise
within CNS drug discovery. We trust this collaboration will boost our
portfolio of psychiatric products, a strategic therapeutic focus area
for Meiji Seika,” said Osamu Makabe, Ph.D., Senior Vice President,
Research and Development of Meiji Seika. “The exciting profile of this
class of drugs may offer a promising new approach to treating
schizophrenia and related disorders, including the potential to address
cognitive disturbances frequently experienced by these patients, which
represents an area of major unmet medical need.”
“We are delighted to establish this innovative partnership with Meiji
Seika,” said Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ACADIA.
“With its strong development and commercial capabilities and focus on
CNS disorders, we believe Meiji Seika is an excellent partner to help
advance the development of this exciting program and to commercialize in
Japan and other Asian markets.”
The collaboration is based on a novel class of compounds that combine
muscarinic m1 agonism with dopamine and serotonin receptor antagonism.
These compounds have demonstrated a unique combination of pro-cognitive
and antipsychotic activity in preclinical behavioral models. The
companies plan to initiate IND-enabling studies and co-develop a product
candidate through completion of proof-of-concept clinical studies. Meiji
Seika has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the product in
Japan and several other Asian countries. ACADIA retains the right to
develop and commercialize the product in the rest of the world,
including the U.S. and Europe. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement,
ACADIA is eligible to receive from Meiji Seika up to $25 million in
aggregate payments, including upfront fees, and development and
regulatory milestone payments, as well as royalties on product sales in
the Asian territory, if the product is commercialized successfully.
