Boehringer Ingelheim and Circle Pharma have signed a new research collaboration and license agreement to develop a novel precision cancer treatment, worth up to $607m.
The partnership is intended to develop a first-in-class cyclin inhibitor. This breakthrough could stop the growth of cancer cells in patients with difficult-to-treat cancers.
Under the agreement, Circle Pharma will receive an upfront payment in development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments.
Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim said current methods targeting cyclin-dependent kinases often suffer from low selectivity and toxicity.
South San Francisco-based Circle Pharma has developed a macrocycle therapy solution. These therapies directly inhibit cyclins, the proteins that regulate cell division.
Its MXMO platform uses structure-based drug design and advanced synthetic chemistry.
Circle Pharma’s lead candidate, CID-078, is in clinical trials, contributing to an expanding pipeline of macrocycle therapeutics.
In July this year, the company submitted its first Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for CID-078.
Furthermore, Circle Pharma closed a $90m Series D financing round last month.
Boehringer Ingelheim discovery research senior vice president and global head said: Clive Wood said: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Circle’s scientists to develop an innovative cancer treatment based on their proprietary macrocycle platform molecules to achieve our goal of transforming the lives of people living with cancer.
“This new collaboration complements our oncology research portfolio, and further reinforces our commitment to tackling intractable targets.”
This partnership is expected to support Boehringer Ingelheim in transforming cancer care.
In addition, it strengthens its oncology pipeline, which includes cancer cell-directed and immuno-oncology investigational therapies.
In July this year, the German drug maker acquired US-based drug discovery and development company Nerio Therapeutics for up to $1.3bn to expand its pipeline.
Circle Pharma CEO David Earp said: “With our lead programme, CID-078, a Cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor, we have demonstrated the capability of our MXMO platform to deliver oral macrocycles against a target that was previously considered to be undruggable.
“We’re excited to partner with Boehringer Ingelheim to leverage the platform against another challenging cyclin target that offers the potential to address high unmet need cancer indications.”
