ALK-ABELLO FORMS AGREEMENT WITH SCHERING-PLOUGH

Danish drugmaker ALK-Abello has signed an agreement with Schering-Plough to develop and commercialize its tablet-based allergy immunotherapies in several countries, including the U.S. The agreement gives Schering-Plough exclusive rights to develop, market and distribute the tablet-based immunotherapies against grass pollen allergy, dust mite allergy and ragweed allergy.

Under the agreement, ALK-Abello will receive an upfront payment and milestone payments relating to clinical development and regulatory events for the three tablet-based allergy immunotherapy compounds. In addition, there are various sales milestone payments. The total value of all these potential payments could exceed $250 million, according to the company.

Furthermore, the company will be entitled to royalty payments on Schering-Plough's net sales of the products. Schering-Plough will be responsible for all costs of clinical development, registration, marketing and sales of the products, and ALK-Abello will be responsible for production and supply.

ALK-Abello's tablet-based allergy immunotherapies are the first tablets to address the underlying cause of allergies and not just the symptoms, according to the company. One of these drugs, Grazax, is a fast-dissolving, once-daily immunotherapy tablet against grass pollen allergy.