PharmaEngine and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals recently signed an agreement, under the terms of which PharmaEngine grants Merrimack the rights to design, produce and sell PEP02 (MM-398) across Asia and Europe, excepting Taiwan.
PharmaEngine will be given a forthright payment and could receive another substantial amount besides tiered royalties on sales across Europe and Asia. Merrimack will bear the product manufacturing costs in the permitted regions whereas PharmaEngine in turn will maintain the exclusive right to develop and sell in Taiwan, and participate in clinical and supervisory activities toward a worldwide development plan.
C.Grace, President and CEO of PharmaEngine stated that they have manufactured this drug from the pre-clinical to the completion stage and believes that Merrimack would help in the world-wide development and marketing of their product. She asserted their commitment to develop a novel nanoparticle therapy that would address the essential medical needs of cancer patients.
PEP02 is a nanoliposomal formulation of irinotecan, which is considerably stable and innovative. PharmaEngine has tested it in multiple human laboratory trials, including four phase I and two phase II trials in gastric and pancreatic tumors. Both phase II trials satisfied the primary criteria of response rate and 3-month survival. The papers on both the research studies were presented at the 2011 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that was recently held in San Francisco, CA, USA.
Source: http://www.pharmaengine.com