Alexion gains rights to Soliris-related patents for $10M

Alexion Pharmaceuticals has agreed to acquire from fellow USA-based Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation all rights to certain patents related to complement-inhibition technology.

The patents cover inventions made by OMRF in the 1980s relating to the treatment of complement system mediated disorders, to which Alexion has had limited rights as a licensee since the inception of the company. In the 1990s, Alexion began programs to create and develop monoclonal antibodies capable of blocking the body's complement system. One result of this work was the development of Soliris (eculizumab), which was approved for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration and by the European Commission during 2007. Soliris is a complement inhibitor product developed and marketed by Alexion for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare, debilitating and life-threatening disease.

Under an agreement recently executed by the two organizations, Alexion will pay OMRF $10.0 million to acquire all rights and interests to the patents, in various amounts to be remitted in 2008 and the first half of 2009. No further amounts, including royalties, will be owed to OMRF in respect of sales of Soliris or other use of the OMRF patents. Accordingly, previously-announced claims filed by OMRF and counterclaims by Alexion in the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma will be dismissed.