U.K.-based drug-delivery firm Lipoxen will receive a $2 million license fee from Baxter and a potentially $2 million equity investment by the U.S. drug giant as part of an agreement originally signed in 2005. The slight amendment to the deal relates to payment of the $2 million on Baxter’s selection of a PSA-FVIII candidate developed using Lipoxen's PolyXen® drug-delivery technology. Under terms of the original agreement the $2 million license fee would have been payable once an IND for the drug had been filed.
The ongoing collaboration is focused on combining Lipoxen’s drug-delivery technologies with Baxter’s molecules. The agreement could be worth up to $75 million to Lipoxen in cash milestones plus royalties. Baxter is also investigating Lipoxen's polysialic acid (PSA) technology for other potential factor replacement therapies in the treatment of hemophilia A and B.
Lipoxen is exploiting its drug-delivery technologies both in-house for the reformulation of already marketed products and through collaborations with industry. Its PolyXen technology uses PSA to prolong the life and improve the stability of therapeutic proteins and peptides, and also small molecules. ImuXen® is a group of liposomal technologies designed to improve the delivery and effectiveness of DNA, protein, and polysaccharide vaccines. VesicALL® is a liposome-based technology for use in the delivery of anticancer drugs or other toxic or insoluble therapeutic molecules. The firm says the liposomes used in VesicALL are similar in composition and structure to those used in ImuXen, and include phosphatidyl choline and cholesterol.