Aus­tralian cell ther­a­py com­pa­ny Mesoblast joins forces with Ger­many's Grü­nen­thal to tack­le low back pain

While the FDA re­views a rolling ap­pli­ca­tion for its ex­per­i­men­tal stem cell ther­a­py for acute graft ver­sus host dis­ease (GVHD), Aus­tralia’s Mesoblast has tied up Ger­many’s pain spe­cial­ist Grü­nen­thal to de­vel­op a treat­ment for chron­ic low back pain caused by de­gen­er­a­tive disc dis­ease.

Un­der the deal, Grü­nen­thal will gain ex­clu­sive com­mer­cial­iza­tion rights to the drug, MPC-06-ID, for Eu­rope and Latin Amer­i­ca. Mesoblast, which is test­ing the drug in a US late-stage study that is ex­pect­ed to read­out next year, is get­ting $150 mil­lion in up­front and mile­stone pay­ments, in ad­di­tion to po­ten­tial roy­al­ties. Cu­mu­la­tive mile­stone pay­ments could sur­pass $1 bil­lion, the com­pa­nies said on Mon­day.

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