LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Pieris Pharmaceuticals shares rocketed after inking a multi-million dollar deal with AstraZeneca to develop drugs to treat respiratory diseases.
The $57.5m transaction includes an upfront payment of $45.0m with a further $12.5m milestone payment scheduled for when the company begins a phase 1 trial for its pre-clinical treatment PRS-060, for moderate to severe asthma, scheduled for later in 2017.

UK-based Astra will pick-up all the costs for pre-clinical development and commercialisation of PRS-060.

Another four therapeutic programmes are covered under the same agreement, with Pieris having been given an option for US co-development and co-commercialisation on two of those.

The US outfit is also eligible for as many as $2.1bn in development-dependent milestone payments and, eventually, commercial ones,

As of 1337 GMT shares in Pieris were higher by 41.25% to $3.39.

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