BioCentury
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Pfizer exercises HCV option

February 6, 2010 12:38 AM UTC

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) exercised an option to license exclusive, worldwide rights, excluding Asia, to develop and commercialize a family of HCV compounds from Tacere Therapeutics Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). The compounds include TT-034 and TT-033, adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors containing three RNAi elements that are in preclinical testing for HCV. Pfizer gained the option in 2008. Tacere is eligible for $145 million in upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties. Tacere said Pfizer exercised the option after the compounds demonstrated acceptable safety profiles in mice and non-human primates. Oncolys BioPharma Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) has Asian rights to the compounds from Tacere, which originally licensed the IP underlying the compounds from Benitec Ltd. (ASX:BLT) in 2006 (See BioCentury Extra, Monday, Jan. 07, 2008). ...