New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) Ichnos Sciences Inc, a wholly-owned arm of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, on Tuesday said it has entered into an exclusive licensing pact with Almirall SA, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health, for development and commercialisation of a compound intended for autoimmune disease indications. Under the agreement, Almirall has been granted global rights to develop and commercialise the ‘IL-1RAP’ antagonist monoclonal antibody ‘ISB 880’ which is being developed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, the company said in a statement.
Almirall will assume full cost and responsibility for the global development and commercialisation of the compound for all autoimmune disease indications.
However, Ichnos will retain rights for antibodies acting on the IL-1RAP pathway for oncology indications, it added.
“Ichnos will receive an upfront payment of €20.8 million (nearly Rs 180 crore) as well as additional development and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties based upon future global sales,” the company said.
Commenting on the development, Ichnos MD, President and CEO, Cyril Konto said,”This is an exciting step forward for Ichnos as we enhance our focus on oncology and accelerate the pipeline of multispecific antibodies based on our proprietary, BEAT platform.” Almirall’s excellent team is well positioned to take ISB 880 through testing and development with the goal of delivering this potential new treatment to patients, Konto added.
“Given its novel mechanism of action, we believe that ISB 880 has great potential to treat underserved patients across a range of autoimmune dermatological diseases,” Almirall Chief Scientific Officer Karl Ziegelbauer He further said,”We look forward to beginning to work on ‘ISB 880’ and based on the significant data generated by Ichnos, we plan to initiate the first-in-human study in the first half of 2022.” PTI RKL RUJ RUJ
