OSE Pharma to partner Tedopi with RAFA Labs in Israel

French biotech firm OSE Pharma (Euronext Paris: OSE) has entered into an exclusive long-term agreement with Israel’s privately-held RAFA Laboratories for the registration, marketing, distribution and sales of its investigational lung cancer drug Tedopi.

Under the terms of the distribution agreement, RAFA will submit the drug for approval in Israel, market and distribute it in the territory for a long term period. RAFA will pay an upfront and milestone payments based on the future development of the product in addition to equally sharing the profit of Tedopi s sales in Israel. No financial terms of the accord were disclosed.

"This collaboration represents a significant step as first licensing and distribution agreement in the business development strategy for OSE Pharma with pharmaceutical companies well established in specific countries. RAFA has obtained a leading position, long history in the pharmaceutical sector particularly in orphan respiratory diseases and in oncology/supportive care. The long-standing relationships with Israeli key opinion leaders made them an ideal partner for Israel and this substantial agreement has been facilitated by our advanced clinical stage in NSCLC [non-small cell lung cancer]," said Dominique Costantini, chief executive of OSE Pharma.