China-based Everest Medicines (HKG: 1952) has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a subsidiary of Shanghai Pharma, SPH Keyuan Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (SPH Kyuan), for a strategic partnership. According to the MoU, Everest and SPH Keyuan will collaborate to promote the import and channel distribution of Xerava (eravacycline) in China. SPH Keyuan’s leading position in drug import, nationwide distribution network, and modern logistics systems will be instrumental in expanding the scale and speed of commercialization of Xerava, benefiting patients and addressing urgent unmet needs in the country.
Xerava: A Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic for Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens
Xerava is a novel, fully synthetic, broad-spectrum fluorocycline, parenteral antibiotic of the tetracycline class that has demonstrated broad in vitro activity against gram-negative and gram-positive pathogens that have acquired multidrug resistance (MDR), which are prevalent in China. The drug is currently approved for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI) in the US, EU, UK, and Singapore, and is under marketing review in Taiwan. Xerava was licensed from Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company. Everest plans to commercially launch the drug in mainland China in the third quarter of this year.
Everest’s Pipeline in Infectious Disease Treatments
In addition to Xerava, Everest is actively developing other critical innovative treatment options in the infectious disease space. This includes taniborbactam, expected for NDA filing in China this year for complicated urinary tract infection, and EVER206, a novel polymyxin derivative with a potentially robust safety profile, which is anticipated to initiate phase III clinical study in the second half of this year.-Fineline Info & Tech
