Licensing Agreement

Dong-A ST President Kang Soo-hyoung (left) and Tobira Therapeutics CEO Laurent Fischer.
Dong-A ST President Kang Soo-hyoung (left) and Tobira Therapeutics CEO Laurent Fischer.

 

Dong-A ST Co. announced on Apr. 11 that it has entered into a license agreement with Tobira Therapeutics to develop Evogliptin as a treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Under the terms of the agreement, Dong-A ST will receive up to US$61.5 million (70.54 billion won) from Tobira, including a down payment and milestones for clinical drug development, approval and commercialization. Also, the company will export raw materials of Evogliptin in global clinical trials and commercialization, and receive royalties on global sales.

Tobira has acquired exclusive rights to develop and market Evogliptin in combination with its investigational NASH drug Cenicriviroc (CVC), while also seeing the company develop the drug as a single agent in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia for all therapeutic indications.

In 2008, the Ministry of Health and Welfare recognized Evogliptin as an innovative new drug, and as a result, Dong-A ST received support for two years from May 2008. Evogliptin is a DPP-4 diabetes drug independently developed by Dong-A ST and was launched under the name of Suganon in March in Korea.

Dong-A ST President Kang Soo-hyoung said, “It is very meaningful in that the company has secured a bridgehead for the expansion into advanced markets. Dong-A ST will make every effort to make its other new drugs push into the global market and help patients suffering from various diseases.”

 

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