Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Amgen Ties Into Cytokinetics

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen and South San Francisco-based Cytokinetics today said that the two will collaborate on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics for the treatment of heart failure. The two firms said that Amgen will pay Cytokinetics $42M in a non-refundable up-front license and technology access fee, and has also purchased $33M worth of the firm's common stock. The deal also calls for up to $600M in milestone payments based on annual net sales of products commercialized under the collaboration. Cytokinetics develops small molecule drugs targeted at treatments for cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases.