Benzinga | Jun 4, 2021 08:02AM EDT

Cyclerion Therapeutics Reports Global Licensing Deal With Akebia Therapeutics For Praliciguat; Co. Eligible For Up To $585M In Milestone Payments

Cyclerion eligible to receive up to $585 million in potential future development and commercial milestone payments, and tiered sales-based royalties

Praliciguat out-licensing further enables Cyclerion's strategic focus on CNS, including first-in-class CNS-penetrant sGC stimulators CY6463 and CY3018

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cyclerion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYCN) today announced that it has entered into an exclusive, global license agreement with Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on kidney disease, for the development and commercialization of praliciguat, an oral sGC stimulator.

Under the terms of the agreement, Akebia has obtained an exclusive license to research, develop and commercialize praliciguat globally and will be solely responsible for these activities going forward. Cyclerion is eligible to receive up to $225M in pre-commercial milestones, including up to $15M in the first 18 months. Total potential future development, regulatory, and commercialization milestone payments could result in up to $585M. Cyclerion is also eligible to receive tiered, sales-based royalties ranging from single-digit to high-teen percentages.

"We are very pleased to license praliciguat to Akebia, whose demonstrated leadership in kidney disease and extensive R&D and commercialization capabilities make it an ideal partner for the future development of praliciguat. This transaction provides Cyclerion with meaningful participation in any potential near and longer-term value creation and enables us to focus on our mission to develop treatments for cognitive impairment, including our foundational assets CY6463 and CY3018, where we see enormous clinical promise," said Peter Hecht, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Cyclerion.

"We are pleased to expand our clinical development pipeline with the in-licensing of praliciguat, which is highly complementary of our strategy to identify and efficiently develop novel therapeutics for people impacted by kidney disease," said John P. Butler, Chief Executive Officer of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. "We look forward to leveraging our capabilities to explore development and commercialization of praliciguat."