2023.11.07
Chong Kun Dang partners with Novartis in historic $1.3 billion deal
BY SHIN HA-NEE,
Korea JoongAng Daily - Pharmaceutical company Chong Kun Dang signed a
$1.3-billion technology transfer agreement with Novartis for its rare genetic
disease treatment candidate.
The technology
transfer deal, signed on Monday, is the largest ever for the Korean
pharmaceutical company.
Chong Kun Dang’s
CKD-510, a histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitor, is a drug candidate for
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is a rare, hereditary genetic condition that
causes muscle weakness. HDAC6 is an enzyme involved with inflammatory
responses, and inhibiting it can dampen those responses.
In signing the deal,
Chong Kun Dang licensed out the exclusive rights to research, clinical studies
and sales of CKD-510 outside Korea to Novartis, a big pharma company based in
Basel, Switzerland, according to the company’s regulatory filing Monday. It retains
the rights to CKD-510's development and sales in the domestic market.
While the technology
transfer contract is valued at $1.3 billion, Novartis agreed to an upfront
payment of $80 million upon the signing of the deal, and will later pay $1.2
billion each time certain drug-development milestones, or objectives, are
attained.
Licensing royalties
will be paid separately based on the drug’s sales performance in the future.
Chong Kun Dang
completed CKD-510's phase one clinical trial of in Europe and reported positive
results during preclinical studies.
“Chong Kun Dang has
previously exported our anemia treatment biosimilar Nesbell to Japan and a
novel diabetes treatment Duvie to the United States through technology
transfer,” said the company’s CEO Kim Young-joo.
“The latest deal is
our biggest ever, and it feels rewarding to license out one of our new drug
candidates, that we have been investing over 12 percent of our revenue every
year to develop, to a global big pharma company,” said Kim.
Following the
regulatory filing Monday, Chong Kun Dang's share price soared by 26.11 percent
on the main Kospi bourse to close at 128,000 won ($98.80).