Lee's Pharma licenses rights to commercialize PL2200 Aspirin in China

Apr 10 2012

PLx Pharma Inc, a Houston based pharmaceutical company developing gastrointestinal (GI) safer drugs has licensed to Lee's Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited (Lee's Pharma) the rights to register and commercialize in China, Hong Kong and Macau the PL2200 Aspirin, a GI safer aspirin product currently in development in the US, for prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular is one of the focus areas of Lee's Pharma. Currently, Lee's Pharma has 10 products either launched or under development for cardiovascular diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension, hypertension, heart failure and acute coronary disease.    

"PLx has a technology that retains aspirin's benefits and at the same time reduces its primary side effect, GI toxicity. This dramatically improves an already well known drug and we want to make it available to a large and growing Chinese population at risk for cardiovascular disease," says Benjamin Li, M.D., the Chief Executive Officer of Lee's Pharma, "aspirin is also widely used for treating pain, inflammation and fever, and by making it GI safer there may be benefit for cancer prevention. The prospective clinical data particularly for GI cancers is interesting."

Lee's Pharma will have responsibility for getting PL2200 Aspirin approved in China and for commercializing it to provide a GI safer immediate release aspirin for patients most at risk for cardiovascular disease. PLx Pharma will receive a royalty based upon product sales.

"We are excited to partner with Lee's Pharma to position PL2200 in the third largest pharmaceutical market in the world behind the US that will quickly become the second largest. Lee's has the cardiology expertise to effectively market this product in China," said Ron Zimmerman, the Chief Executive Officer of PLx Pharma.