Provention Bio is making its way into China with a new deal announced Wednesday.
The Red Bank, NJ-based biotech has agreed to a deal with a subsidiary of Huadong Medicine to work on PRV-3279, a bispecific antibody-based molecule targeting CD32B and CD79B, in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Provention will get $6 million upfront and up to $11.5 million in funding over the next three years to cover expected research costs.
The deal also includes regulatory and commercial milestones of up to $172 million. Provention will retain all rights to PRV-3279 in the rest of the world.
Provention’s theory behind the experimental drug is to engage both the CD32B and CD79B receptors to trigger inhibition of B cell function and suppress the immune system from attacking its own body. It’s currently in a Phase I trial for systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by an overactivation of B cells.
Wednesday’s news comes a few months before Provention’s lead program teplizumab is due for a PDUFA decision in Type 1 diabetes at the FDA. The biotech picked up the drug in 2018, eight years after it was dumped by Eli Lilly.
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