Global pharmaceutical company Ipsen has initiated an R&D collaboration on novel engineered botulinum toxins with Harvard Medical School. Ipsen will fund Harvard research for at least three years to discover, evaluate and develop novel engineered recombinant botulinum toxins for the treatment of neurologic diseases.

The collaboration will combine Harvard’s discovery platform and botulinum toxins engineering experience with Ipsen’s drug discovery and pharmaceutical R&D history. Ipsen will have worldwide rights to any candidate recombinant toxin stemming from the collaboration. Ipsen will be responsible for the development and marketing of the new toxins and will make associated upfront milestone and royalty payments to Harvard.