Friday, April 24, 2020
Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited (“Hansoh Pharma”), a leading biopharmaceutical company in China, and NiKang Therapeutics, Inc. (“NiKang”), a U.S.-based early stage biotech company focused on discovering and developing innovative small molecule medicines to help patients with unmet medical needs, today announced a collaboration focused on development and commercialization of NKT-1992 – a small molecule in preclinical development – for viral infection in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (“Greater China”).
Under the terms of the collaboration, NiKang is eligible to receive an upfront collaboration fee and additional payments contingent on certain development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, potentially totalling more than $100 million, plus tiered royalties on net sales. Hansoh Pharma will be responsible for leading development and commercialization of NKT-1992 in Greater China.
“We are excited to be entering into this partnership with Hansoh Pharma to progress NKT-1992 in China, where there is a significant unmet medical need for the treatment of viral infections. We look forward to working in close collaboration with Hansoh to bring this innovative anti-viral drug to patients in China as rapidly as possible,” said Zhenhai Gao, Ph.D., Co-Founder and President of NiKang.
“We are very pleased to partner with NiKang, a company that has demonstrated impressive capabilities in drug discovery,” said Rudi Bao, M.D. Ph.D., SVP of Hansoh R&D. “Despite significant advances in prevention and treatment options, viral infections continue to cause broad public health challenges around the world; we look forward to working with NiKang and continuing to tackle debilitating infectious diseases by developing life-changing medicines.”
Discovered through structure-based design, NKT-1992 targets a highly conserved enzymatic domain that is critical for viral transcription and replication. Inhibition of this mechanism of action can potentially achieve faster reduction of viral load and associated signs and symptoms.
