On March 20, Schering-Plough Corporation and PTC Therapeutics, Inc. announced their collaboration and licensing agreement for the development of PTC's preclinical compounds for the oral treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and other viral diseases.
"The goal of this alliance is to develop new oral therapies to improve treatment for patients with hepatitis C, one of the most serious and common blood borne infections in the world," said Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D., executive vice president, discovery research, Schering-Plough Research Institute. "Schering-Plough is continuing its leadership in hepatitis C through internal research programs and strategic collaborations with innovative companies such as PTC, with a focus on developing targeted viral inhibitors," she said.
"We are delighted to enter into this collaboration with Schering-Plough, as our teams share a commitment to develop new HCV therapies that will benefit patients," said Stuart Peltz, president & CEO of PTC Therapeutics. "Schering-Plough's expertise in the research and development of antiviral therapies and its global hepatitis franchise affords PTC the opportunity to realize the full potential of our IRES inhibitors. This collaboration provides additional validation for the GEMS technology and nicely complements our strategy as we advance internally the development of our clinical programs."
The terms of agreement includes PTC and Schering-Plough conducting a joint research program while Schering-Plough alone will be responsible for the development and worldwide commercialization efforts.
Read more at SP News Release.
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