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Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Watertown-based drug developer, has entered into a collaboration deal with Swiss giant Novartis for the development of a hepatitis C virus drug that could be worth as much as $440 million to Enanta.
Novartis will pay Enanta $36 million up front, according to a release, and could pay as much as $404 million more if Enanta hits certain clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones. The deal is for Enanta’s lead development candidate to come out of its NS5A hepatitis C virus (HCV) inhibitor program, a compound called EDP-239. The drug candidate targets the non-structural 5A (NS5A) protein encoded by the hepatitis C virus, which is indicated as being vital to the virus’ replication among cells.
Enanta has already received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval for EDP-239 from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Under the new deal, Novartis will pick up all costs associated with the development, manufacture and commercialization of EDP-239. Also, Novartis will fund some other compounds that Enanta is working on that target NS5A.
In October, Enanta won a five-year $42.7 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a National Institutes of Health division, to support the company’s efforts in developing treatments of infections stemming from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) and resistant streptococci.
Another potential HCV treatment Enanta is working on is its ABT-450 investigational protease inhibitor, co-developed with Abbott. In March 2010 the companies moved their jointly developed drug candidate to Phase 2 clinical trials.
Enanta was founded in 1998 with investments by Techno Venture Management, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Bioventures Investors and Global Biomedical Partners. A key investor was Shionogi and Co. LTD, a Japanese firm in the production and marketing of antibiotics in Asia.
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