BRIEF—Shionogi and UMN in infectious diseases alliance

Japanese drug companies Shionogi and UMN Pharma have agreed to an alliance to research, develop and commercialize vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases.

The alliance is comprised of two phases, with the first one involving the collective establishment of core technologies for drug discovery, including vaccines for infectious diseases, using UMN Pharma’s research and production sites. Basic research will be carried out on development candidates agreed by both companies.

Then in the second phase, selected candidates will be jointly progressed through research, development, registration and launch.

To fund the research and development on the first phase, UMN Pharma will allocate 600,000 shares of common stock and a first issuance of convertible bounds with stock acquisition rights to Shionogi. The capital investment associated with this acquisition is expected to be about 1.6 billion yen ($10 million).