BRIEF—HitGen and Kaken enter into license agreement

In a third deal within the space of one month, Chinese biotech firm HitGen has entered into a license agreement to develop a novel class of drugs with Japan’s Kaken Pharmaceutical.

The licensed compounds were identified using HitGen’s leading technology platform, which involved screening large DNA encoded libraries, containing over 400 billion of small molecules with drug-like properties synthesized on chemically diverse scaffolds.

A number of novel small molecule leads for an undisclosed target nominated by Kaken were the subject of this license agreement.

Under the terms of collaborative agreement, HitGen will grant exclusive rights to Kaken for further development and commercialization, and be eligible for preclinical and clinical milestone payments from Kaken as the project progresses, in addition to upfront license fee.

“We are delighted to announce this significant project milestone. The success of delivery of these licensed compounds has further demonstrated the power of our DEL platform to discover novel small molecules against a variety of targets, including those previously challenging ones. We look forward to seeing the progress made by Kaken,” said Dr Jin Li, chairman and chief executive of HitGen.