Deals this week: Mundipharma, Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Mundipharma has signed an agreement with Kolon Life Sciences to secure rights for osteoarthritis therapy Invossa in Japan.

The agreement is worth up to $600m and will involve the development, marketing and distribution of the drug.

Kolon Life Sciences dosed the first patient in a Phase III trial for Invossa this month. It is hoping to be granted the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Disease Modifying Osteoarthritis Drug (DMOAD) label.

Based in Australia, Mundipharma is a biotech and pharmaceutical company, while Kolon Life Sciences is biopharmaceutical company based in Korea.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals is providing its OmniAb development platform to iMetabolic Biopharma Corporation (iMBP) in return for an ownership position in the company.

The agreement allows iMBP to use the OmniRat®, OmniMouse®, OmniFlic®, and OmniChicken™ platforms in its drug discovery efforts.

The OmniAb platforms enable the development of a range of mono and bi-specific antibodies, which can be used for developing first-in-class drugs for metabolic diseases.

Ligand will fund certain early antibody discovery efforts, while iMBP will be responsible for pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation costs.

iMetabolic has made an upfront license payment to Ligand, which is eligible to receive a tiered royalty on future potential sales of up to 6%.

Both the companies involved in the transaction are biopharmaceutical companies based in the US.

Shanghai Roche Pharmaceuticals has announced plans to extend its partnership agreement with Ascletis BioScience for viral Hepatitis medication Pegasys.

Roche will provide sales and marketing promotion rights to Ascletis in Mainland China. The two companies had embarked on a similar partnership for Ganovo.

Pegasys is a pegylated interferon indicated for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C infections.

Shanghai Roche Pharmaceuticals and Ascletis BioScience are both pharmaceutical companies based in China. The partnership will enable Ascletis to meet the clinical needs of Hepatitis B and C patients in China and strengthen its position in the country.