Switzerland's Debiopharm will pay up to $25 million in R&D milestones to partner with Marina Biotech on the company's preclinical program for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Marina can look forward to royalties on the sales of any products developed in the course of the partnership. Debiopharm will also foot the bill for all R&D costs starting this month. Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"We are excited to enter into a development and commercialization partnership with Marina Biotech. Their RNAi drug discovery engine and, in particular, the pre-clinical work they've accomplished in developing a bladder cancer therapeutic are impressive. We look forward to working with the team at Marina Biotech and advancing this novel compound to patients in need," said Rolland-Yves Mauvernay, president of Debiopharm. Marina's pipeline include a clinical program for familial adenomatous polyposis (a precancerous syndrome) and a preclinical research for hepatocellular carcinoma.
- here's Marina's release