Aratana Therapeutics Expands Therapeutic Candidate Pipeline

LEAWOOD, Kan., March 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aratana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETX), a pet therapeutics company focused on the licensing, development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics for dogs and cats, today announced an animal health research and development collaboration with AskAt Inc, including an option agreement for multiple therapeutic candidates with potential in pain, allergy and cancer. AskAt is a life-sciences company based in Nagoya, Japan, discovering and developing novel compounds in human health. Members of AskAt's research team, while in a predecessor company, led the initial discovery of compounds that were licensed and developed by Aratana and became two of Aratana's FDA-approved therapeutics.

In addition, Aratana has licensed the exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and commercialize AT-019, known as AAT-008 by AskAt, a potent and innovative EP4 receptor antagonist therapeutic candidate with potential in pain, inflammation and other indications. The AT-019 license agreement includes an upfront payment of $0.5 million; milestone payments of up to $15.5 million; and tiered single-digit royalties based on net sales.

"As the pioneer in pet therapeutics, it's our mission to deliver safe and effective therapeutics that elevate the standard of care in veterinary medicine," stated Dr. Ernst Heinen, DVM, PhD, Chief Development Officer of Aratana Therapeutics. "The strategic expansion of our pipeline exemplifies our dedication and pursuit of new therapeutic options in a category where our research and development team has experienced successes."

About Aratana Therapeutics
Aratana Therapeutics is a pet therapeutics company focused on licensing, developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for dogs and cats. As a pioneer in pet therapeutics, Aratana's mission is to deliver safe and effective therapeutics that elevate the standard of care in veterinary medicine. We work with companion animal veterinarians to bring new therapeutics to market that support the needs of pets and their owners. For more information, please visit www.aratana.com.

About AskAt Inc.
AskAt is a new kind of life-sciences company, an open collaboration catalyst. AskAt accelerates small molecule R&D innovation by designing optimized platforms and value-enhancing life cycle partnering opportunities around its core intellectual property. AskAt's programs concentrate in therapeutic areas of critical, unmet patient needs, including cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, pain, autoimmune disorders, and blindness caused by macular degeneration. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements with respect to anticipated financial performance, our ability to bring innovative therapeutics to the market; steps necessary for and timing of regulatory submissions and approvals of therapeutic candidates; study, development and commercialization of therapeutics or therapeutic candidates, including AT-019 and its potential in pain, inflammation and other indications; and statements regarding the Company's efforts, plans and opportunities, including, without limitation, advancing our therapeutic candidates and offering innovative therapeutics that help manage pet's medical needs safely and effectively and that result in longer and improved quality of life for pets.

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our history of operating losses and our expectation that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future; failure to obtain sufficient capital to fund our operations; risks relating to the impairment of intangible assets; risks relating to the discontinuation of BLONTRESS and TACTRESS; risks pertaining to stockholder class action lawsuits; unstable market and economic conditions; restrictions on our financial flexibility due to the terms of our credit facility; our substantial dependence upon the commercial success of our therapeutics; development of our biologic therapeutic candidates is dependent upon relatively novel technologies and uncertain regulatory pathways, and biologics may not be commercially viable; denial or delay of regulatory approval for our existing or future therapeutic candidates; failure of our therapeutic candidates that receive regulatory approval to achieve market acceptance or achieve commercial success; product liability lawsuits that could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and limit commercialization of current and future therapeutics; failure to realize anticipated benefits of our acquisitions and difficulties associated with integrating the acquired businesses; development of pet therapeutics is a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome; competition in the pet therapeutics market, including from generic alternatives to our therapeutic candidates, and failure to compete effectively; failure to identify, license or acquire, develop and commercialize additional therapeutic candidates; failure to attract and retain senior management and key scientific personnel; our reliance on third-party manufacturers, suppliers and partners; regulatory restrictions on the marketing of our approved therapeutics and therapeutic candidates; our small commercial sales organization, and any failure to create a sales force or collaborate with third-parties to commercialize our approved therapeutics and therapeutic candidates; difficulties in managing the growth of our company; significant costs of being a public company; risks related to the restatement of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013, and the identification of a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting; changes in distribution channels for pet therapeutics; consolidation of our veterinarian customers; limitations on our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards; impacts of generic products; safety or efficacy concerns with respect to our therapeutic candidates; effects of system failures or security breaches; delay or termination of the development of grapiprant therapeutic candidates and commercialization of grapiprant products that may arise from termination of or failure to perform under the collaboration agreement and/or the co-promotion agreement with Elanco; failure to obtain ownership of issued patents covering our therapeutic candidates or failure to prosecute or enforce licensed patents; failure to comply with our obligations under our license agreements; effects of patent or other intellectual property lawsuits; failure to protect our intellectual property; changing patent laws and regulations; non-compliance with any legal or regulatory requirements; litigation resulting from the misuse of our confidential information; the uncertainty of the regulatory approval process and the costs associated with government regulation of our therapeutic candidates; failure to obtain regulatory approvals in foreign jurisdictions; effects of legislative or regulatory reform with respect to pet therapeutics; the volatility of the price of our common stock; our status as an emerging growth company, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors; dilution of our common stock as a result of future financings; the influence of certain significant stockholders over our business; and provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could delay or prevent a change in control. These and other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on March 14, 2017, along with our other reports filed with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change, except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Contacts
For investor inquires:
Craig Tooman
[email protected]
(913) 353-1026

For media inquiries:
Rachel Reiff
[email protected]
(913) 353-1050

SOURCE Aratana Therapeutics

Related Links

http://www.aratana.com