AsianScientist (Jan. 13, 2020) – Enleofen Bio, a home-grown Singaporean biotech company specializing in the development of therapeutics for fibrotic diseases, has announced an alliance worth more than US$1 billion with German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim. The alliance involves Boehringer Ingelheim acquiring worldwide exclusive rights to Enleofen’s preclinical interleukin-11 (IL-11) platform.
Boehringer Ingelheim will pay Enleofen earnout payments in excess of US$1 billion for each new product in upfront and success-based development and commercialization milestones. At the time of writing, the deal is the largest for any biotech company in Singapore.
Due to an incomplete knowledge of the fibrotic process, there are currently very limited effective therapies to treat many fibro-inflammatory diseases. The discovery of the role of a specific protein, IL-11, in fibrotic diseases of the liver, lung, kidney, eye, skin and heart stimulated the development of bio-therapeutics called neutralizing antibodies to target and block IL-11 activity. IL-11 blockade has been shown to reverse inflammation and reduce fibrosis in diseased body organs.
“More than 225 million people worldwide suffer from heart and kidney failure, which resulted from the hardening of the organ tissues with no treatment. The development of anti-IL-11 therapies will offer hope to patients with end-stage heart, kidney, lung or liver failure, addressing the unmet medical needs of patients worldwide,” said Professor Terrance Chua, medical director at the National Heart Center Singapore Group.
The discovery of IL-11’s role in fibrosis and the development of preclinical stage drug candidates by Enleofen will be advanced by Boehringer Ingelheim, potentially leading to viable drugs for treating different fibrosis related issues. With the acquisition, Boehringer Ingelheim will accelerate the IL-11 platform and products towards clinical development.
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Source: Enleofen Bio; Photo: Shutterstock.
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