Alcon Takes Over Potentia (NYSE:ACL)

Alcon, Inc. (NYSE:ACL) has announced that they have inked a licensing and purchasing agreement with Potentia Pharmaceuticals. The eye drug company Alcon through the agreement has acquired the license to develop Potentia’s leading drug candidate, POT-4 for the treatment of AMD or better known as age-related macular degeneration. Potentia Pharmaceuticals is a privately-held biotechnology company that develops medicines for the treatment of eye problems like AMD. The agreement between both the companies also provides Alcon to acquire the shares of Potentia if specified development milestones are achieved and if Alcon wants to continue with the development of POT-4 in the future.

@@Adsense@@ Alcon, Inc. is a leading eye care company with the sales of approximately US$6.3 billion in the previous year and the company has been dedicated to the ophthalmic industry for 65 years developing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals, surgical equipments and devices and other vision care products that treat diseases, conditions and disorders of the eye. The agreement with Potentia will help them combat AMD which is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly patients and currently there are 10 million patients in the United States suffering from age-related macular degeneration. Currently, no drug has been approved for the treatment of dry form of AMD.

Alcon has agreed to make upfront payments to Potentia for the initial license and option rights. They will also provide royalty payment to Potentia shareholders based on sales of any product that finally approved and commercialized. However, Alcon executives did not say much about the financial terms of the deal. As per the agreement Potentia’s shareholders will also receive future payments based on the achievement of multiple clinical and global regulatory approved milestones for several therapeutics indications. Potentia Pharmaceuticals have already completed the Phase 1 trial for POT-4 in patients suffering from AMD successfully.