Dara BioSciences (NASDAQ:DARA), which been steadily building up its drug portfolio by acquiring products, is now getting rid of one.
Raleigh-based Dara has granted worldwide development and commercialization rights to diabetes drug candidate DB959 to T3D Therapeutics, a new Research Triangle Park company. David Drutz, CEO and chief medical officer for Dara, said in a statement that the diabetes compound no longer fits the focus of the company, which has made a strategic move into products used in cancer care. Dara has made multiple acquisitions in the last year of products used in oncology.
The deal is valued at $500,000 up front: $250,000 within three days of the June 17 agreement and another $250,000 by Dec. 20. Dara said in securities filings that these initial license fees will be used to eliminate $500,000 in liabilities associated with the compound. Dara also stands to gain revenue from unspecified milestones depending on the progress of the DB959 program.
Dara had taken DB959 through phase I clinical trials for the treatment of diabetes and dyslipidemia, an abnormal amount of lipids in the blood. But the company had previously stated it was looking to outlicense the compound so that it could focus on its cancer products.
Even though DB959 will go to a new company, it will be under the oversight of a familiar face. T3D Therapeutics’ team includes John Didsbury, Dara’s chief scientific officer from 2005 to 2009. The compound will also be studied in a new indication: Alzheimer’s disease. Didsbury said in a statement that most of the Alzheimer’s disease drugs in development aim to reduce or prevent beta amyloid plaque buildup in the brain. But T3D expects that DB959 could offer a way to tackle Alzheimer’s disease on a number of fronts, including neuroinflammation, neuronal cell loss and neurotranmitter deficits.
T3D’s advisors include Dr. Lawrence Friedhoff, the Eisai scientist who oversaw the development of Aricept the Alzheimer’s drug that is currently the market leading treatment for Alzheimer’s disease; and Dr. Warren Strittmatter, recipient of the Alzheimer’s Association Zenith Award and recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as the “Top 20 Scientists” in Neuroscience and Behavior for the decade 1992-2002.
