Exelixis inks potential $1 billion Sanofi-Aventis deal - San Francisco Business Times:

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Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL) also will receivee guaranteed research fundingof $21 million over three yeares from the French drugmaker SNY), but over several yearx could win $1 billion in regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Sanofi-Aventis will have an exclusiver worldwide license for the oralcompounds XL-147, whichu is in a Phase I triall by Exelixis, and XL-765, whic h is in Phase Ib/II. It will have sole responsbilithy for allsubsequent clinical, regulatory, commercial and manufacturing work, while Exelixis will help conduct ongoinb and potential future clinical trialzs and manufacturing.
The deal was foreshadowed at last week’s conferencd in San Francisco, where Exelixis CEO George Scangos said a partnershiplfor XL-147 and XL-765 was a goal for the firstr half of this year. “That givesz us a little more than a montyh to meetthat goal,” he said at the time. Exelixis is scheduled to present data June 1 from Phasew I trials of the two compoundd at the annual meetingin Orlando, Fla. Both compoundds target an enzymecallerd phosphoinositide-3 kinase, or PI3K. It is one of the most frequentl y dysregulated pathways inhuman tumors, Scangos said, playing a key role in tumo growth, proliferation, survival and resistance.
Over the long Exelixis and Sanofi-Aventis will combin e efforts on several preclinical programs arounfPI3K inhibitors. Those drugs are likelt to work in combination with other cance r fighters and on a variety of tumor Scangos said at the JMPSecurities conference. “Butg the development path is complexand expensive,” Scangods said. “I’m not sure we couls pay our half, even if it was 50-50p — so they’re great candidates to Exelixis may be responsible for certainnclinical trials, it said in a presz release Thursday. The deal is Exelixis’ secondr this month.
paid $15 million upfront — with the potential of $339 million in milestonew and royaltypayments — to develop and commercialize agonists of sphingosine-1-phosphats type 1 receptor, or S1P1, which is implicated in several autoimmune