Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited (3692.HK, "Hansoh Pharma" or the "Company"), a leading innovation-driven pharmaceutical company in China committed to improving human health through continuous innovation, with a focus on the treatment of major diseases including oncology, infectious diseases, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, metabolic diseases and autoimmune diseases, and NiKang Therapeutics Inc. ("NiKang"), a clinical stage biotech company focused on developing innovative small molecule oncology medicines, announced on May 2 that they had entered into an exclusive collaboration and license agreement for the development and commercialization of NiKang's lead drug, NKT2152, for the treatment of cancer in Greater China, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
NKT2152 is a small molecule that inhibits HIF2α. It is currently in a Phase I/II dose escalation and expansion trial (NCT05119335). This trial is designed to evaluate safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical activity in patients with advanced ccRCC.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hansoh Pharma will receive the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize NKT2152 in Greater China, and NiKang will receive an upfront cash payment of $15 million and will be eligible to receive $203 million in potential development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments, and tiered royalties on net sales.
"We are excited to work with NiKang." said Yuan Sun, Executive Director of the Board of Hansoh Pharma. "HIF2α plays an important role in the development and progression of kidney and other cancers. Based on the sound biology, excellent potency and PK profile observed in preclinical studies, NKT2152 has the potential to become a best-in-class molecule to address this important pathway. We believe that our extensive expertise in clinical development and commercialization in China can help bring this differentiated product to cancer patients in China soon."
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Hansoh Pharma to develop and commercialize small molecule medicines and expand the reach of NKT2152 as a potential treatment for multiple tumor types,” said Zhenhai Gao, Ph.D., Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of NiKang. "By combining NiKang's precision oncology expertise with Hansoh's proven development and commercialization capabilities in Greater China, we believe that we will be able to accelerate global development of NKT2152 and bring it as a potential novel cancer treatment to China patients sooner."
About Hansoh Pharma
Founded in 1995, Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, the main business entity of Hansoh Pharma, is a leading innovation-driven pharmaceutical company in China. Adhering to the corporate mission to create excellence in pharmaceuticals and enhance innovation in China, Hansoh Pharma is committed to improving human health through continuous innovation, with a focus on the treatment of major diseases including oncology, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, infectious diseases and diabetes, among others. Hansoh Pharma has been ranked top 30 among China's Top 100 Companies in Pharmaceutical Industry and top 3 among China's Best Industrial Enterprises in Pharmaceutical R&D Pipeline for consecutive years, and is a national key high-tech enterprise and national technology innovation demonstration enterprise. The Company went listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd. in June 2019 (HK.03692).
About NiKang Therapeutics
NiKang Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company focused on discovering and developing innovative small molecule oncology medicines to help patients with unmet medical needs. The company’s target selection is driven by deep insights into disease biology and molecular pathways, and its discovery approach is informed by target structure biology and capitalizes on structure-based drug design. The successful implementation of the company’s strategy enables it to rapidly and efficiently discover and advance proprietary drugs.
