2013年1月28日讯 /生物谷BIOON/ -- AstraZeneca公司CEO称，他们将对呼吸疾病相关通路进行研究。这项研究将建立在瑞典生物技术公司Orexo OX-CLI program的基础上。由于Orexo公司的主要合作伙伴Johnson & Johnson于一年前退出，使得该项目由于经费不足被迫中止。但是OX-CLI现在被认为仍具有广阔的前景，可能将帮助成千上万的呼吸疾病患者。
另一方面，AstraZeneca公司也希望借此机会使本公司的研发部门走出低谷。
详细英文报道：
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot is banking on a deep pipeline of respiratory meds to help revive the beleaguered drug giant. On the early-stage front, the London-based pharma company has agreed to evaluate preclinical compounds for breathing problems from the Swedish biotech Orexo, which shelved research of such assets last year after its major discovery pact with a Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) unit flatlined.
Uppsala-based Orexo has found a potential new lease on life for its OX-CLI program through the agreement with AstraZeneca ($AZN), which has been hungrily striking deals on drugs of all stages of development to kick-start its comeback from the bottom tier of R&D productivity in Big Pharma. For now, however, AstraZeneca is only doing more preclinical research on Orexo's preclinical assets as part of an evaluation that could lead the company to acquire the compounds.
Orexo will only get certain unspecified milestones and potential royalties on product sales if AstraZeneca decides to take its option to acquire the compounds.
Nevertheless, the OX-CLI program appears to have better prospects today than a year ago, when Orexo announced that J&J's Janssen unit handed back its rights to that program and another from the biotech, ending a discovery pact hailed back in 2010 for its potential to amount to more than half a billion dollars. In January 2012, Orexo said that without J&J's participation, the OX-CLI program would stop.
Orexo CEO Anders Lundstr?m, who slashed the company's staff last year in a cost-saving move, struck a much more upbeat tone about the program today.
"Our OX-CLI program is a promising R&D project, which has potential to improve the treatment of respiratory diseases for millions of patients," he stated. "AstraZeneca, a leading global company within the inflammatory and respiratory area, is the optimal partner for OX-CLI and we look forward to see the project advancing."
Lundstr?m needs AZ to pull the trigger on its option, though.
