- Home
- |
- Contact
- |
- Pharmacovigilance
- |
Welcome to
Chiesi group
Parma, Italy and Cleveland, OH, USA, May 2nd, 2022 - Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. (Chiesi Group), the international research-focused pharmaceutical and healthcare group, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Allinaire Therapeutic, LLC, a company founded by BioMotiv, to acquire the world-wide rights to a portfolio of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II (EMAP II) for the potential treatment of PAH.
EMAP II is a non-classical cytokine which impacts apoptosis, cell injury, endothelial cell function and inflammation. Based on the pioneering work by the scientific founders, Matthias Clauss, PhD and Irina Petrache, MD, and their colleagues at Indiana University and National Jewish Health, Allinaire and their network of preclinical and clinical scientists, have demonstrated a pivotal pathogenic role of EMAP II in cardiopulmonary diseases, including PAH, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and viral-induced acute lung injury[1],[2]. They developed anti-EMAP II mAbs which are currently being progressed in early phases, as a potential disease-modifying treatment for PAH and are the subject of this partnership.
PAH is a rare disease with an incidence of 2–5 per million adults[3]. PAH is a progressive disorder characterised by high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that can lead to right heart failure. Current approved medications mainly address the symptoms of this rare condition and there is an unmet medical need for novel approaches that could delay, or reverse, the disease progression.
“This agreement is further evidence of Chiesi’s commitment to seek out novel treatments for conditions with a high unmet medical need such as PAH” commented Thomas Eichholtz, Head of Global R&D of Chiesi Group. “We believe that an anti-EMAP II mAb is a promising novel approach for the treatment and slowing of disease progression for patients with PAH. The partnership with Allinaire is further evidence of Chiesi’s focus on innovation and desire to accelerate our entry into biologics and thus diversify our therapeutic platforms”.
According to Douglas W.P. Hay, CEO and CSO of Allinaire, “We have made excellent progress in our anti-EMAP II mAb program at Allinaire, working with a multi-disciplinary team of experts in EMAP II science, biologics, and cardiopulmonary disease therapeutics. We are extremely excited to be partnering with Chiesi, a world-class global pharmaceutical company with a long-standing and successful track-record in this therapeutic area, to advance this novel class of medicines”.
Allinaire will receive an upfront payment, future milestone payments and net sales royalties.
The agreement with Allinaire follows Chiesi’s recent €85m investment to build the Biotech Center of Excellence Plant in Parma (Italy), dedicated to the development, production, and distribution of biological products. In recent years the group has also undertaken a series of new strategic partnerships with external partners, including Moderna and Cyclica, to strengthen their work in biotechnology.
The development of biological products has continued to increase over the last 10 years. On the global market, the sector has grown at an annual rate of more than 12% in the last 30 years and will double by 2030.
About Chiesi Group
Based in Parma, Italy, Chiesi is an international research-focused pharmaceuticals and healthcare group with over 85 years’ experience, operating in 30 countries with more than 6,000 employees (Chiesi Group). To achieve its mission of improving people’s quality of life by acting responsibly towards society and the environment, the Group research, develops and markets innovative therapeutic solutions in its three focus areas: AIR (products and services that promote respiration, from new-born to adult populations), RARE (treatment for patients with rare and ultra-rare diseases) and CARE (products and services that support specialty care and consumer-facing self-care). The Group’s Research and Development centre is based in Parma and works alongside 6 other important research and development hubs in France, the U.S., Canada, China, the UK, and Sweden to pursue its pre-clinical, clinical, and regulatory programmes. Chiesi, since 2019, is the world’s largest B Corp certified pharmaceutical group. The global B Corp movement promotes business as a force for good. Moreover, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. has changed in 2018 its legal status to a Benefit Corporation, by incorporating a double purpose for the creation of shared value, and to generate value for its business, for society and the environment. As a Benefit Corporation, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. is required by law to include objectives of common benefit in its bylaws and to report annually in a transparent way. The Group is committed to becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2035.
For further information: www.chiesi.com
About Allinaire
Allinaire was founded in 2016 by BioMotiv (www.biomotiv.com; now managed by Advent Life Sciences, www.adventls.com), with the licensed technology from Indiana University. Additional information about Allinaire is available at https://www.allinaire.com.
Contacts for media:
Chiesi Group
Alessio Pappagallo
Press Office Manager
Tel: +39 339 589483
Email a.pappagallo@chiesi.com
[1] Allinaire unpublished data on file.
[2] Clauss M, et al. Lung endothelial monocyte-activating protein 2 is a mediator of cigarette smoke-induced emphysema in mice. J. Clin. Invest., 2011; 121: 2470-2479.
[3] Hoeper MM, et al. Review. A global view of pulmonary hypertension. The Lancet, Respir. Med., 2016; 4 (4): 306-322.
