Upfront and milestone payments total $195 million for Hydra.
Hydra Biosciences signed a collaboration agreement with Pfizer Global Research & Development focused on TRPV3 antagonist product candidates for pain. The Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channel family comprises a group of nonselective cation channels that are distinct from voltage gated ion channels.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hydra will receive upfront and success-based development milestone payments totaling $195 million for the first product launched, with upside potential for additional approved indications. There also are opportunities for the development of additional products. Pfizer will fund all R&D and will receive exclusive access to Hydra’s current TRPV3 patents as well as an exclusive license to commercialize any compound from the collaboration. Once the products are on the market, Pfizer will pay worldwide royalties to Hydra.
Recent work indicates that TRPs respond to a variety of stimuli and second messenger signaling, according to the companies. It is believed that TRPs act as multimodal signal integrators. This gene family represents 10% of all ion channels.
Since TRP channels are only distantly related to voltage gated channels, and homology among TRP family members is quite low, the firms anticipate that specific and selective modulators may be more readily identified in this family than in other ion channel families, limiting the potential for off-target effects, which have plagued other ion channel families.
