Amgen invests £53.8m in Unilife wearable injectors

Amgen has invested £53.8m ($75m) in Unilife Corperation as part of a joint agreement to produce wearable injectors

The collaboration, which includes licensing, investment, development and supply agreement components, is centered upon the use of Unilife's portfolio of prefilled, customisable wearable injectors for medicines.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Unilife has granted Amgen exclusive rights to Unilife's wearable injectors within select drug classes for use with certain Amgen assets, while preserving rights previously granted to other Unilife customers.

Unilife has also granted Amgen non-exclusive rights to all proprietary Unilife delivery systems within the therapeutic areas of oncology, inflammation, bone health, nephrology, cardiovascular and neuroscience.

Ian Hanson, senior vice president and general manager of Unilife's Wearable Injector business unit, said: "Unilife looks forward to a long-term strategic collaboration with Amgen to drive value for patients, prescribers and payers.

"Unilife is pleased to advance its leadership position in the wearable injectors market to meet growing demand for biologics and other medicines.

“Our prefilled, pre-assembled and ready-to-inject delivery systems are easy-to-use and enhance patient experience."

Alison Moore, senior vice president of process development at Amgen, said: "We are pleased to enter this collaboration with Unilife. One important pillar of Amgen's strategy is to invest in leading drug delivery technologies to more effectively meet the needs of patients suffering from serious illnesses.

“Unilife continues to develop technology that could provide patients with innovative and meaningful enhancements to drug administration."

Under the strategic collaboration, Unilife can receive up to £53.8m ($75m). At closing, Amgen paid a non-refundable £14.3m ($20m) license fee and purchased a £21.5m ($30m) senior secured convertible note from Unilife.

Amgen may purchase up to an additional £17.9m ($25m) in senior secured convertible notes over the next two years - £10.7m ($15m) in January 2017 and £7.2m ($10m) in January 2018. These payments are in addition to Amgen's £10.7m  ($15m) payment to Unilife in connection with the exclusivity letter entered into on December 31, 2015.

In addition to these payments, Unilife said it expects to generate future revenue from the strategic collaboration with Amgen. The collaboration includes a master development and supply agreement that captures key terms for the development, production and supply of Unilife delivery systems. Development programs will commence in 2016.