The partnership will apply this AI-driven approach to several undisclosed rare conditions, with Alexion having the option to select and advance successful targets through clinical development. Alexion will also handle the commercialization of any resulting products. This agreement follows AstraZeneca's recent $1 billion deal with Pfizer to acquire a portfolio of preclinical gene therapies and technologies.
Key takeaways:
- AstraZeneca's rare disease division, Alexion, has entered into a multi-target agreement with Verge Genomics to discover and develop drugs for rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.
- Alexion will make a $42 million payment in upfront fees, equity and near-term investments, and the four-year collaboration could yield up to $840 million for Verge, plus potential future royalties.
- Alexion will gain access to Verge's proprietary CONVERGE platform, which uses machine learning to identify novel disease targets from human tissue data.
- This partnership is AstraZeneca's second rare disease deal recently, following a $1 billion acquisition of preclinical gene therapies and technologies from Pfizer in July.