Loxo Oncology, Array BioPharma Report License, Collaboration Deal

 Loxo Oncology, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company recently established and funded by Aisling Capital, and Array BioPharma Inc.

today announced a multi-year license and collaboration agreement for an Array-invented preclinical development candidate and related intellectual property.  In addition, Loxo and Array will collaborate to discover and develop small molecule drugs for mutually agreed upon novel oncology targets.  The licensed program targets a specified novel oncogenic activating mutation.  This program and collaboration benefit from recent advances in understanding the cancer genome.  For novel, driver oncogenes, it is possible to accelerate both preclinical and clinical development of compounds in well-defined target populations.  To date, this approach has generated robust response rates in Phase 1 and 2 trials, which in turn has enabled rapid clinical development and commercialization. Under the terms of the agreement, Loxo will fund Array's preclinical research, providing access to Array's world-class discovery platform and scientists, and will be responsible for target selection and conducting clinical trials.   Array is eligible to receive up to $434 million in milestone payments and to receive royalties on sales of any resulting drugs.   In further consideration of the rights granted to Loxo under the agreement, Array also received shares of stock in Loxo.