PharmaMar (MSE:PHM) has announced today a licensing agreement with Boryung Pharm to commercialize the marine-derived anticancer drug Aplidin® (plitidepsin) in South Korea. Under the terms of the agreement, PharmaMar will receive an upfront payment along with royalties and additional remunerations upon achieving regulatory milestones with Aplidin®. PharmaMar will retain exclusive production rights and will supply the finished product to Boryung Pharm for commercial use.
Aplidin® is PharmaMar's second anticancer drug is currently under development for the treatment of multiple myeloma along with relapsed or refractory angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. The company announced in March 2016 that plitidepsin has shown positive results in a pivotal Phase III clinical trial (ADMYRE) for multiple myeloma.
"The partnership with Boryung Pharm will help in the commercialization in South Korea of plitidepsin, developed to tackle cancer. This will be our third licensing agreement in Asia", said Luis Mora, Managing Director of PharmaMar´s Oncology Business Unit. "We are looking forward to working with our partner in Korea and to advancing in the upcoming regulatory steps that will lead to future sales of Aplidin®", he added.
Boryung Pharm Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tae-Hong Choi said, "we look forward to working with PharmaMar to ensure this valuable multiple myeloma therapy is available as soon as possible to patients in Korea." He added "despite remarkable advances in oncology over recent years, multiple myeloma has still remained an incurable illness. Therefore Aplidin® may be highly valuable as a new curable guideline for this difficult cancer".
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About APLIDIN® (plitidepsin)
Plitidepsin is an investigational anticancer agent of marine origin, originally obtained from the ascidian Aplidium albicans. It specifically binds to the eEF1A2 and targets the non-canonical role of this protein, resulting in tumor cell death via apoptosis (programed death). Plitidepsin is currently in clinical development for hematological cancers, including a Phase Ib trial in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma as a triple combination of plitidepsin, bortezomib and dexamethasone, and a Phase II study in relapsed or refractory angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. A Phase III trial in multiple myeloma relapsed or refractory has been completed. Plitidepsin has received orphan drug designation in the European Union and the United States of America.
About Boryung Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.,
Established in 1963, Boryung Pharmaceutical has been one of Korea`s leading pharmaceutical companies with sales revenue of KRW 400 billion, 1,155 employees and 550 sales representatives as of 2015. The company is fully integrated from R&D through manufacturing, marketing and sales with an established presence in Korea. The company has focused on the development and commercialization of new pharmaceutical products. Its main therapeutic categories are oncology, cardiovascular, anti-infective, respiratory and others. Especially Boryung is the strongest company in anti-cancer market in Korea. Additional information can be found at http://www.boryung.co.kr
About PharmaMar
Headquartered in Madrid, PharmaMar is a world-leading biopharmaceutical company in the discovery and development of innovative marine-derived anticancer drugs. The company has an important pipeline of drug candidates and a robust R&D oncology program. PharmaMar develops and commercializes YONDELIS® in Europe and has three other clinical-stage programs under development for several types of solid and hematological cancers, PM1183, plitidepsin, and PM184. PharmaMar is a global biopharmaceutical company with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium and the United States. PharmaMar fully owns other companies: GENOMICA, Spain's leading molecular diagnostics company; Sylentis, dedicated to researching therapeutic applications of gene silencing (RNAi); and two other chemical enterprises, Zelnova Zeltia and Xylazel. To learn more about PharmaMar, please visit us at http://www.pharmamar.com.