Australia’s Starpharma has signed a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, giving the Anglo-Swedish company commercialization rights for oncology compounds directed at a defined family of targets using Starpharma’s DEP drug delivery technology.

The collaboration centers on Starpharma’s proprietary dendrimers that aim to enhance the dosing and efficacy characteristics of pharmaceuticals and is seen as part of AstraZeneca’s drive to upgrade its oncology platform. The agreement focuses on novel compounds, rather than unmodified drugs in currently marketed formulations.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Starpharma, regarded as world leader in the development of dendrimer products for pharmaceutical, life-science and other applications, is eligible to receive signature and milestone payments on one or more of AstraZeneca DEP products if they progress through the development pipeline, along with milestone and royalty payments on any net sales of the resulting products.

AstraZeneca will also fund all development and commercialization costs under the agreement, including ongoing and future collaborative work conducted. Starpharma’s other programs, in particular its wholly-owned DEP docetaxel product, are said to be “not negatively impacted” by the new arrangement.

At the signing, the life sciences company became eligible for a signature payment of $2 million. For the initial product, development and launch milestones could total up to $64 million, and sales milestones based on specified annual sales levels could total up to $60 million, the companies said.

The licensing agreement allows for additional products to be incorporated, with development and regulatory milestone payments of up to $53.3 million. Potential sales milestones based on specified annual sales levels for qualifying additional products could total up to $40 million. Any AstraZeneca DEP products would also attract tiered royalties on net sales.

“We estimate that each qualifying product successfully commercialized under this agreement could be worth, over its life, around $450 million to Starpharma and, depending on the range of indications and degree of commercial success in the market, potentially significantly more,” CEO Jackie Fairley said.