Destiny Pharma has signed an exclusive collaboration and co-development agreement for the North American rights of NTCD-M3, its medicine to prevent c.difficile infection (CDI) recurrence.
Sebela Pharmaceuticals, a US gastroenterology specialist, will partner with Destiny to finance and lead the future development and commercialisation of NTCD-M3 in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Destiny retains the majority rights for Europe and the rest of the world.
The deal involves an upfront payment by Sebela of US$1mln, with a further US$19mln dependent on development milestones being passed and up to a further US$550mln for sales-based revenues.
Destiny will also potentially receive tiered, double-digit royalties.
C. difficile is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infection in the US and poor treatments from antibiotics lead to cycles of repeated recurrence in many patients.
Destiny retains an obligation to manufacture all clinical trial supplies with Phase 3 studies expected to start in 2024.
To fund this, it also announced conditional fundraising of up to approximately £8mln comprising a placing, subscription and an open offer to complete the Phase 3 clinical trial preparation for NTCD-M3, including clinical trial material manufacturing.
New shares were placed at 35p to raise approximately £7mln with up to a further £1mln to come from the open offer.
Neil Clark, Destiny’s chief executive, said: "We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Sebela, a high-quality, GI specialist company which has the necessary clinical development and commercialisation expertise to take NTCD-M3 through to launch."
Such partnering deals are in line with our stated strategy of finding pharma partners to undertake the required Phase 3 clinical studies of our lead assets thus reducing the funding requirements of the company."
Alan Cooke, Sebela Pharmaceuticals' chief executive added: “NTCD-M3 provides a unique and differentiated approach to prevent the recurrence of C. difficile infection and represents a significant addition to our valuable development pipeline."