Drug licenser LianBio and recently IPO’d autoimmune biotech Landos Biopharma are joining forces to develop and sell two ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) assets in China and parts of Asia.
The collab focus in on omilancor and NX-13, specifically in greater China and “select Asian markets” where the two will work together to get the later-stage experimental meds through trials and, they hope, onto the market.
Omilancor works as an oral, gut-restricted LANCL2 agonist in development for the treatment of UC and CD, as well as for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the oesophagus.
NX-13, meanwhile, is an oral, gut-restricted NLRX1-targeting compound also targeting UC and CD.
Under the terms of the deal, LianBio will receive exclusive rights to develop and sell omilancor and NX-13 in greater China, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Landos nabs an upfront cash payment of $18 million, with $200 million in biobucks also on the table and future royalties. For its part, LianBio will join in future global phase 3 trials of omilancor and NX-13 by “enrolling a meaningful number of patients in these studies,” according to a statement.
LianBio will then funnel cash expenses in the collaboration territory, while Landos will continue to fund all development and sales expenses in all other geographies.
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“We are excited to collaborate with LianBio to strategically integrate their clinical and operational expertise in major Asian markets as we expand into global development programs with our innovative autoimmune disease pipeline,” said Josep Bassaganya-Riera, chairman, president and CEO of Landos Biopharma.
A Xontogeny alum, Landos Biopharma recently nabbed a $100 million Nasdaq IPO while LianBio, which has been ramping up the deals to bring new drugs to China, brought in a new CEO this month: Yizhe Wang, Ph.D., who officially starts today and comes after leading the team that brought Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody, bamlanivimab, to an emergency nod.
“Our lead product candidates, omilancor and NX-13, are designed to have critical advantages over current therapies, including the capacity to target key and novel pathways specifically linked to immune function. The opportunity to capitalize upon LianBio’s resources in Asian markets will enable us to leverage the full value of our assets globally and bring our potentially more effective and better tolerated first-in-class oral therapeutics to patients with UC and CD in Greater China and select Asian markets.”
“We believe Landos’ differentiated approach to the discovery and development of first-in-class oral therapeutics to target novel immunometabolic pathways has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm for CD, UC and other autoimmune diseases,” added Konstantin Poukalov, managing director at Perceptive Advisors and executive chairman of LianBio.
“With inflammatory bowel disease incidence projected to significantly increase throughout Asia over the coming decade, we look forward to partnering with Landos to address the current and future needs of IBD patients.”