Dr Reddys arm, Olema Pharma ink pact to develop novel cancer therapies

San Francisco: Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Olema Pharmaceuticals have announced an exclusive global license agreement to research, develop and commercialize novel small molecule inhibitors of an undisclosed oncology target.

Under the terms of the agreement, Olema will make an upfront licensing payment of $8 million for rights to a pre-existing Aurigene program. Aurigene will be eligible for up to $60 million in potential clinical development and regulatory milestones and up to $370 million in potential commercial milestones, as well as royalties ranging from the mid-single digits to the low double digits based on annual net sales.

During the research term, Olema will contribute funding to Aurigene to facilitate ongoing discovery efforts. Olema and Aurigene will jointly direct further preclinical work and, if successful, Olema will lead clinical development as well as regulatory and commercial activities. "Olema continues to be well capitalized with sufficient cash to fund our planned research and development operations into 2024," Dr Reddy's arm stated.

"We continue to have confidence in OP-1250 and its potential to become the endocrine therapy of choice for ER+ / HER2- breast cancer, and believe this collaboration will give us an opportunity to expand our focus on new treatments for cancer in women. Aurigene has an impressive history of successful collaborations and combined with Olema's deep understanding of cancer biology and extensive development expertise, we believe this is a strong strategic opportunity to enhance our growing discovery portfolio," said Sean P. Bohen, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Olema Oncology.

"This agreement with Olema further validates Aurigene's proven expertise in discovery and preclinical development of effective cancer therapeutics" said Murali Ramachandra, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Aurigene. "We look forward to the continued development of an Aurigene program, which will now be ably supported by the extensive development capability of Olema."

Read also: Dr Reddys to sell Finast, Styptovit-E and 2 other brands to Torrent Pharma