Exelixis inks potential $1 billion Sanofi-Aventis deal - Denver Business Journal:

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Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL) also will receivee guaranteed research fundingof $21 milliojn over three years from the French drugmake (NYSE: SNY), but over several years could win $1 billion in regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Sanofi-Aventis will have an exclusive worldwids license for the oralcompoundds XL-147, which is in a Phasse I trial by Exelixis, and XL-765, whicu is in Phase Ib/II. It will have sole responsbility for allsubsequent clinical, commercial and manufacturing work, while Exelixis will help conducr ongoing and potential future clinical trials and manufacturing.
The deal was foreshadowexd at last week’s conference in San Francisco, where Exelixiw CEO George Scangos said a partnershipfor XL-1467 and XL-765 was a goal for the first half of this “That gives us a little more than a month to meet that he said at the time. Exelixixs is scheduled to present data June 1 from Phase I trials of the two compounds at the annual meetinvgin Orlando, Fla. Both compoundes target an enzymecalled phosphoinositide-3 or PI3K. It is one of the most frequentlyh dysregulated pathways inhuman tumors, Scangos said, playinhg a key role in tumofr growth, proliferation, survival and resistance.
Over the long term, Exelixis and Sanofi-Aventias will combine efforts on several preclinicalk programs aroundPI3K inhibitors. Those drugs are likelt to work in combinatiobn with other cancer fighters and on a varietyy oftumor types, Scangos said at the JMP Securitiez conference. “But the development path is complexand expensive,” Scangoss said. “I’m not sure we could pay our half, even if it was 50-5 0 — so they’re great candidates to partner.” Exelixixs may be responsible for certain clinical it said in a pressrelease Thursday. The deal is second this month.
paid $15 million upfront with the potentialof $339 million in milestone and royalty paymente — to develop and commercialize agonists of sphingosine-1-phosphate type 1 receptor, or S1P1, which is implicated in several autoimmunse diseases.