“This development partnership will give our project the speed and attention needed to bring the project closer to market. We are extremely pleased to have Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. onboard”
Medivir AB (Sweden)(STO:MVIRB) today announced a license agreement with Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., (South Korea) for its hepatitis B virus (HBV) polymerase inhibitor drug, lagociclovir valactate (MIV-210).
Under the terms of the agreement, Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. will assume responsibility for clinical development and have marketing rights in South Korea, Japan and China (including Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong). Medivir is entitled to upfront, milestones and royalties on sales up to double-digital level, and has retained the exclusive marketing rights in the rest of the world.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical assumes the exclusive clinical development right from Hainan Noken Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd. of China (Noken). The compound will now benefit from accelerated clinical development in South Korea, which permits use of Medivir’s phase I data for entry into phase II clinical development, and thereby an earlier entry onto the market. Noken has been retained as a distribution partner for MIV-210 in China.
“The partnership with Medivir is in line with our strategy to develop outstanding first-in-class products. We are looking forward to the development of lagociclovir valactate, which has a very interesting profile. This compound is potentially addressing a major medical need as there are millions of patients suffering from chronic hepatitis B infection” comments Dr. Jong-Wook Lee, President and CEO, Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
“This development partnership will give our project the speed and attention needed to bring the project closer to market. We are extremely pleased to have Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. onboard” comments Ron Long, CEO, Medivir AB.
Chronic HBV infection remains a major public health challenge in Asia. Globally, about 2.0 billion people are infected with the virus. Of these, 370 million fail to clear the viral infection, and are chronically infected, which progresses to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (in 15-40% of cases).
In the 7 major industrial markets, the HBV market is expected to nearly triple in size to around USD 1.2 billion in 2016 (IMS Health, 2008). In South Korea, the market for hepatitis B drugs is currently USD 210 million annually, growing at a rate of 31% (IMS 4Q 2009). In China, sales of hepatitis B treatment is expected to increase to USD 1 billion by 2012.
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