Ipsen and Oncodesign partner in R&D

The two companies have worked together on R&D projects for the past 20 years, before sealing a drug discovery partnership in 2012. Now, Ipsen and Oncodesign have entered into a strategic oncology partnership, which has Oncodesign handling the pre-clinical pharmacology for Ipsen’s research projects in oncology. 

Ipsen will use experimental models and new pharmacological approaches based on Oncodesign’s pharmaco-imaging and the detection of biomarkers. In return, Oncodesign will receive a minimum guaranteed annual fee to cover the cost of its research efforts in addition to potential variable payments, linked to business volumes generated by Ipsen’s programmes. 

The strategic collaboration of the companies also covers the relocation of some of Oncodesign’s teams to Ipsen’s R&D centre in Paris-Saclay. “This new partnership represents a shift from a collaborative model that has already proven its value to a more extensive collaboration over a renewable five-year term through the creation of a joint research team based both at Ipsen’s Les Ulis facility and Oncodesign’s facility in Dijon,” the companies said in a statement.

“This partnership with Oncodesign fits perfectly with the development of Ipsen’s new R&D model, in which our Paris-Saclay platform will become a private open innovation campus,” added Christophe Thurieau, Ipsen Innovation’s Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Scientific Affairs.