Numab Therapeutics and Kaken Pharmaceutical: Alliance for atopic dermatitis treatment

Numab Therapeutics AG today announced the formation of a global co-development and regional licensing agreement for the company’s novel multispecific anti-inflammatory drug candidate NM26-2198, which blocks three key pathways in the pathophysiology of atopic dermatitis. The alliance builds on a collaboration and option agreement established in 2017.

Under the expanded agreement, Kaken receives commercial rights for NM26-2198 in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, while Numab retains the commercial rights to the US, Europe, and the rest of the world. The parties will jointly develop NM26-2198 with Kaken covering the majority of global development costs up to clinical proof-of-concept. Upon successful commercialization of products resulting from the alliance, Kaken will receive certain payments from Numab up to a cap that is calculated based on previous R&D payments made by Kaken to Numab.

“Today’s news puts our second proprietary key pipeline asset NM26-2198 on a very promising path for value generation and accelerated global development. The alliance with Kaken Pharmaceutical is in line with our Asia regional partnering strategy and follows the structure of our previous deal with CStone Pharmaceutical on our lead oncology asset NM21-1480,” said David Urech, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Numab Therapeutics.