British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline on Monday
announced a deal to pay as much as 3 billion Swiss francs (3.25 billion) to
Swiss company Actelion to jointly develop and sell the company’s experimental
sleeping pill.
Under the deal, Allschwil-based Actelion will receive an
upfront payment of 150 million francs and 415 million francs upon registration
of the drug, called almorexant. Also under the deal, Glaxo will receive
exclusive worldwide rights, excluding
Almorexant is part of a class of drugs known as orexin
antagonists, designed to block receptors for brain chemicals that maintain
wakefulness and regulate the sleep-wake cycle. The novelty with this drug is
that patients taking it do not seem to experience a “hangover” effect the next
day, which is common with many sleep pills already on the market.
“Almorexant has the potential to fundamentally change the
treatment of sleep disorders. GSK is the ideal partner to work with Actelion to
rapidly bring this novel medicine with the potential to restore normal
physiological sleep – to insomnia patients all around the globe,” Actelion
chief executive Jean-Paul Clozel said, according to AFP.
Two other unspecified uses may bring Glaxo as much as 2.74
billion francs in additional milestone payments, Glaxo said.
Both companies will share costs and profits resulting from
their collaboration equally.
Besides Glaxo, other pharmaceutical companies that wanted to
collaborate with Actelion included Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc, Schering Plough and
Johnson & Johnson, bankers and analysts have said according to Reuters.
If almorexant, which will be involved in Phase III studies
later this year, wins the regulatory approval, Actelion and analysts expect it
to generate multibillion-dollar sales. Results of the drug’s safety and
efficacy in insomnia patient are expected in 2009.
Actelion shares shot up 6.7 percent in Swiss trade.
Glaxo shares rose 0.8 percent in