Taylor Wessing advises Asterand plc on licence agreement with Allergan Inc
Taylor Wessing's Life Sciences & Healthcare Group has advised new client Asterand plc, a leading global provider of human tissue and services to pharmaceutical companies engaged in drug discovery research, on an exclusive licence agreement with Allergen, Inc., a global multi-speciality healthcare company.
Allergen has paid Asterand a technology access fee of $6.25 million in a deal that will give Allergen the rights to further develop and commercialise a series of compounds discovered and developed by Asterand to treat conditions and diseases of the eye, such as glaucoma. In addition to the technology access fee, Asterand can receive success-based development and sales milestone payments that could total up to $56.0 million, plus royalties.
Malcolm Bates, partner and head of Taylor Wessing's Life Sciences & Healthcare Group, advised Asterand, along with senior associate, Tim Worden.
Malcolm comments:
"We are delighted to have assisted Asterand on this very significant licence agreement with Allergan, which provides Allergan with access to compounds from one of Asterand's innovative development programmes."
Taylor Wessing is top ranked in the Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology section of UK Legal 500, top ranked in the Life Sciences section of UK Chambers, top ranked in the IP and Commercial and Partnering sections of Practical Law Company’s Life Sciences Handbook and was voted European Life Sciences IP Firm of the Year at the Managing Intellectual Property Awards 2008.
Ends
Notes to editors
For more information please contact Sarah le Cheminant at Taylor Wessing:
Tel: +44 (0)20 7300 4930
Email: s.lecheminant@taylorwessing.com
Taylor Wessing's extensive Life Sciences & Healthcare Group is a multi-disciplinary group combining lawyers from Taylor Wessing’s intellectual property, corporate, competition, dispute resolution, employment and real estate practices. The Group’s clients include Abbott, Amgen, Biocompatibles, Biota and Oxford BioMedica.
Taylor Wessing LLP is a leading law firm providing legal support for commercial organisations doing business in Europe, the Middle East and China. Based in Belgium, Dubai, France, Germany and the UK, Taylor Wessing provides the full range of legal services to major corporations and growing enterprises.
www.taylorwessing.com
About Asterand plc
Asterand is a leading supplier of high quality human tissue and tissue-based services. Asterand's comprehensive approach to human tissue and research services offers pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic companies the unique opportunity to have one company meet all of their human biomaterial needs along the continuum of drug discovery and development. The company's mission is to accelerate target discovery and compound validation and enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to take safer and more effective drugs into the clinic.
www.asterand.com
About Allergan Inc.
Founded in 1950, Allergan, Inc., with headquarters in Irvine, California, is a multi-specialty health care company that discovers, develops and commercializes innovative pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices that enable people to live life to its greatest potential - to see more clearly, move more freely, express themselves more fully. The Company employs more than 8,000 people worldwide and operates state-of-the-art R&D facilities and world-class manufacturing plants. In addition to its discovery-to-development research organization, Allergan has global marketing and sales capabilities with a presence in more than 100 countries. For more information, visit Allergan's Web site at www.allergan.com.