Grifols teams up with Selagine on dry eye disease

Spanish producer of blood plasma-based products Grifols (MCE: GRF) saw its shares fall 3.7% to 10.94 euros by close of trading today, after it announced a global collaboration and licensing agreement with Selagine, a US company focused on developing novel therapeutics for ocular diseases, to treat dry eye disease (DED) with immunoglobulin eye drops.

Grifols notes that potential Ig treatment, once it completed clinical development and received regulatory authorizations, would become the firm’s first ocular-surface indicated medicine as well as its first-ever product for DED, which affects more than 100 million people globally.

The agreement provides for Selagine, a spin-out company from the University of Illinois at Chicago, to receive an undisclosed upfront payment and annual collaboration fee. Grifols will gain worldwide exclusive commercial rights to Selagine’s treatment, which will be developed combining Grifols’ expertise in developing and manufacturing innovative Ig therapies as well as Selagine’s cutting-edge research, medical expertise and clinical experience treating debilitating eye diseases. A new product is expected to reach retail pharmacies following regulatory authorization in early 2029.