Janssen buys rights to Hanmi's novel biologic for diabetes and obesity

10 November 2015

Korea-based pharmaceutical company Hanmi Pharmaceuticals (128940: KS) has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), it announced yesterday. Notwithstanding the positive news, Hanmi’s shares fell 4.85% to 40,000 won in early trading today.

The deal is for the development and commercialization of oxyntomodulin-based therapies including Hanmi’s HM12525A (LAPSGLP/GCG), a novel biologic GLP-1/Glucagon dual receptor agonist to treat diabetes and obesity, which is expected to enter Phase II studies next year.

This is the second deal this month for Hanmi, which recently signed an accord with a 400 million-euro ($430 million) upfront payment and a further 3.5 billion euros in milestone and royalties, etc, with France’s Sanofi (Euronext: SAN), to develop a portfolio of experimental, long-acting diabetes treatments (The Pharma Letter November 5). This was described as the largest ever license deal for a South Korean pharmaceutical firm.

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