C4X Discovery Holdings plc, a pioneering Drug Discovery company, today announces that it has received a milestone payment of $11 million from AstraZeneca triggered by preclinical progress of C4XD’s NRF2 Activator programme.
Under the terms of the licensing agreement announced in November 2022, C4XD received an initial $2 million upfront payment and is potentially entitled to receive up to $400 million in preclinical, clinical development and commercial milestones, and to tiered mid-single digit royalties on future sales.
AstraZeneca is developing C4XD’s former NRF2 Activator programme to deliver an oral therapy for the treatment of inflammatory and respiratory diseases, with a lead focus on chronic respiratory disease.
Clive Dix, CEO of C4X Discovery, said: “This significant preclinical milestone payment marks the progress AstraZeneca has made in driving the NRF2 Activator programme forward. NRF2 is a challenging target and this achievement provides further validation of our ability to generate differentiated, quality molecules in immuno-inflammation. We believe that our unique approach can deliver transformative oral therapies for patients suffering from immuno-inflammatory diseases. This is a great start to our year and we are confident of seeing further progress across our entire portfolio in 2024.”