Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc., (HKG: 2696), a leading biopharmaceutical company based in China, has entered into a licensing agreement with fellow Chinese firm Convalife Pharmaceuticals. Henlius has secured the exclusive commercialization rights for Convalife’s generic version of Puma Biotechnology Inc’s neratinib in China, along with exclusive negotiation and conditional licensing rights for international markets. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Neratinib is an oral, irreversible small molecule pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that effectively blocks the downstream signaling pathways of HER2 and ER, thereby inhibiting tumor cell proliferation and growth. The generic neratinib received approval in China in June of this year as an enhanced adjuvant therapy for adult patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive early breast cancer who have completed adjuvant therapy that included trastuzumab.
Henlius plans to investigate the potential of neratinib as a sequential therapy in combination with its own biosimilar version of Roche’s Herceptin, known as Hanquyou (trastuzumab; HLX02). This combination aims to reduce the recurrence risk in HER2 positive early breast cancer patients at the 5 and 10-year marks post-surgery.- Flcube.com
