Plexium, Inc. (Plexium) and AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) have entered into an exclusive strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize novel Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) therapeutics for neurological conditions. This collaboration combines AbbVie’s extensive neuroscience capabilities with Plexium’s comprehensive TPD platform that enables the discovery of novel therapies toward historically challenging drug targets.
“Our partnership with AbbVie allows us to strengthen our leadership position in Targeted Protein Degradation and broaden our best-in-class capabilities into neurological diseases,” said Plexium President & CEO Percival Barretto-Ko. “Neuroscience is one of the most challenging therapeutic areas to develop new drugs, due to the complexity of the disease pathologies and limited number of modalities that have been successful. With our comprehensive platform and AbbVie’s expertise in this area, we are in a strong position to discover novel degraders against multiple high-value targets to ultimately improve the lives of patients.”
“Collaborating with Plexium to identify and advance novel degraders aligns with AbbVie’s efforts to use novel platform technologies to seek effective therapeutics for patients suffering from debilitating neurological diseases,” said Eric Karran, Ph.D., Vice President, Neuroscience Discovery at AbbVie. “AbbVie remains focused on transformational patient impact and the promising new technologies that can accelerate the development of innovative therapies.”
Under the terms of the collaboration, Plexium will conduct preclinical research activities for the collaboration targets, after which AbbVie has the option to select programs for additional research and development activities. Plexium received an upfront cash payment and is eligible to receive additional payments from AbbVie, as well as tiered royalties on commercialized products, and has the option to participate in product development in return for higher royalty rates. AbbVie will be responsible for development and commercialization globally of products resulting from the collaboration.
