Jazz Pharmaceuticals has struck a deal to bolster its epilepsy ambitions, paying Saniona $42.5 million upfront for a preclinical asset designed to address problems faced by GSK’s withdrawn drug Potiga.
Dublin-based Jazz is on course to turn its existing epilepsy drug Epidiolex into a blockbuster this year. The Saniona deal gives the company global rights to the next-generation epilepsy drug candidate SAN2355. Saniona began (PDF) GMP manufacturing and toxicology studies for the asset in March, putting it on track to finalize a clinical trial application data package by the end of the year.
Jazz will pay milestones as SAN2355 advances, starting with a $7.5 million fee tied to the initiation of the first phase 1 trial. The fee is part of $192.5 million in development and regulatory milestones included in the deal. Jazz is also on the hook for up to $800 million in commercial milestones based on product sales.
SAN2355 is a selective small molecule activator of Kv7.2/Kv7.3 potassium channels. GSK’s Potiga showed that potassium channel openers can improve outcomes in patients with partial-onset seizures more than a decade ago, only for regulators to restrict use after reports of discoloration of the skin and retina. The company withdrew the product in 2017, citing (PDF) “very limited uptake” of the drug.
Xenon Pharmaceuticals has advanced another potassium channel opener, azetukalner, into phase 3 trials in the belief that the structure of its molecule has fixed the problems that sank Potiga. But Saniona saw a need to go further, specifically by avoiding the Kv7.4/Kv7.5 activation it has identified as the likely driver of urinary retention seen in some recipients of azetukalner and Potiga.
SAN2355 selectively activates Kv7.2/Kv7.3 while blocking Kv7.5, a design that Saniona has predicted will reduce urinary retention and adverse effects on the central nervous system. Equally, because SAN2355 is from a different chemical series than Potiga, the biotech sees little risk of skin and retinal discoloration.
Convincing Jazz of the merits of SAN2355 gives Saniona its second deal in nine months. The biotech put cash into SAN2355 after licensing essential tremor candidate SAN711 to Acadia Pharmaceuticals for $28 million upfront last year.