Benzinga - by Lara Goldstein, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Enveric Biosciences (NASDAQ:ENVB), a Florida-headquartered biotech company developing novel neuroplasticity-promoting small molecule therapeutics for depression, anxiety and addiction disorders treatment has signed three non-binding term sheets with another (undisclosed) biotechnology company toward the out-licensing of three classes of compounds.
The three term sheets contemplate that the undisclosed licensee would receive exclusive, royalty-bearing global licenses to develop and sublicense the assets, along with cash buyout options and future option rights to substantially related assets in the Enveric portfolio. The licensee would assume responsibility for all future preclinical and clinical development for all human and/or animal pharmaceutical applications.
The compounds are sourced from Enveric's drug portfolio, consisting of over 1,000 novel molecules targeting specific mental health indications. These new chemical entities have been generated using its discovery and development platform ("Psybrary,") along with proprietary computational chemistry and AI drug-discovery system ("PsyAI").
Specifically, the three compound classes under the term sheets come from two of the seven portfolios of preclinical molecules Enveric recently unveiled as available for out-licensing. The company says numerous molecules and classes remain available for additional out-licensing opportunities.
"Patients living with serious mental health conditions have seen insufficient innovation for far too long, and we are excited for the opportunity to progress several of the novel compounds generated using our drug discovery engine," said Joseph Tucker, Ph.D., director and CEO of Enveric. "We look forward to working with our partner, and we are confident in their leadership and capabilities to work on further developing these drug candidates to advance treatment options for patients. Ultimately, we believe the definitive licensing agreements, once negotiated and finalized, could represent an excellent potential source of revenue for Enveric, and could demonstrate the value creation from Enveric's discovery capabilities and proprietary PsyAI and Psybrary platforms, which have already generated an impressive library of compounds targeting a variety of CNS disorders."
The IP library also includes Enveric's lead program EB-003, a novel, first-in-class approach to treating difficult-to-address mental health disorders potentially promoting neuroplasticity without inducing hallucinations as well as EB-002 (formerly EB-373,) a next-generation synthetic prodrug of psilocin currently under study for psychiatric disorders treatment.
Per the term sheets, Enveric could be eligible to receive future development and sales milestone payments and execution fees for the three licenses -in total adding up to $200 million. This is assuming certain conditions are met, including receiving approval for the Investigational New Drug (IND) applications plus completion of Phases 1 through 3 for the licensed products.
Royalty rates on each license could range from 2.5% up to 10% on future sales, upon meeting certain sales criteria.
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