British drugmaker licenses drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

From Reuters:

LONDON -- Shire (SHP.L) has licensed a drug candidate outside North America for the treatment of muscle disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) from U.S. biotech Acceleron Pharma, strengthening its rare disease pipeline.

Shire (SHPGY.O), Britain's third-largest drugmaker, will make an upfront payment of $45 million to privately owned Acceleron, and could pay additional milestones of up to $165 million for the successful commercialisation of the drug, called ACE-031, for DMD, which is fatal and for which there is no current treatment.

Sylvie Grégoire, president of Shire's Human Genetic Therapies, said the collaboration was an excellent strategic fit with the work that Shire is already doing on rare diseases.

ACE-031 is in Phase 2a trial for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy -- a severe from of muscular dystrophy characterised by rapid muscle degeneration -- and the two companies will work together on a global phase 2/3 clinical trial.

Shire has also licensed Acceleron's other activin receptor type IIB class of molecules, which it said had the potential to treat other muscular and neuromuscular disorders.

It could pay an additional $288 million to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm for commercialisation of ACE-031 for other diseases, and for other molecules, and in royalties on sales.

Shire said its 2010 outlook of non-GAAP earnings trending towards $4 per ADS was unchanged by the deal.

Its shares were 0.1 percent higher at 1,452 pence by 1133 GMT, broadly in line with the STOXX Europe 600 healthcare index .SXDR.