Chugai and Kowa in licensing deal for liver cancer candidate peretinoin

Chugai Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4519) has entered into license agreement with privately-held Kowa Company for peretinoin (development code: NIK-333), for which Kowa is currently conducting clinical development for prevention of recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Under this accord, Kowa will acquire the marketing authorization and Chugai, which is 62% owned by Switzerland’s Roche, will have the exclusive marketing rights of the product supplied by Kowa in Japan. Kowa will receive an upfront fee and milestone payments from Chugai. Further financial terms were not disclosed.

Around 40,000 people are newly diagnosed with primary liver cancer in Japan each year, with about 30,000 deaths, and it is the fifth leading cause of death due to cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for approximately 94% of primary liver cancer. The rate of recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after radical surgery is reported to be 30.1% in the first year, 62.3% in the third year, and 79.0% in the fifth year respectively.