ASTRAZENECA ENTERS COLLABORATION WORTH NEARLY $500 MILLION

Argenta Discovery, a UK-based drug discovery and development company, and AstraZeneca have announced an alliance to identify improved bronchodilators to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Argenta receives a $21 million upfront payment plus additional research funding and preclinical milestone payments.

Scientists from the two companies will collaborate in order to identify long acting muscarinic antagonists and dual acting muscarinic antagonist-ß2 agonist candidate drugs. Promising candidate drugs will be developed as once-daily, inhaled mono or combination therapies. AstraZeneca will be responsible for the development and worldwide commercialization of products arising out of the collaboration. Dependent upon success, Argenta is eligible for further development, regulatory and sales milestones, increasing the total deal value to approximately $500 million.

"The way in which the partnership has been structured creates a real 'win-win' scenario, since we believe that bronchodilator molecules coming out of this collaboration will supersede the benefits of existing bronchodilator therapies with greater duration of action and a more favourable side-effect profile. It is anticipated that the first candidate from the collaboration should enter the clinic in 2008," Christopher Ashton, Argenta's CEO, said.