Wanbang gets exclusive license for opicapone in China

Wanbang Biopharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (SHA: 600196) – whose shares were up 3.07% at44.32  renminbi on the news, has entered into an exclusive license agreement for the importation, packaging and commercialization of opicapone in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) with leading Portuguese drugmaker BIAL.

Under the terms of the agreement, BIAL will receive from Wanbang an upfront license fee of 2.5 million euros ($3 million) and up to 12.5 million euros in further milestones.

Ongentys (opicapone) is BIAL’s proprietary once-daily, peripherally-acting, highly-selective catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor (COMT inhibitor) that was approved in June 2016 by the European Commission as an adjunctive therapy to preparations of levodopa/DOPA decarboxylase inhibitors in adult patients with Parkinson’s disease and end-of-dose motor fluctuations who cannot be stabilized on those combinations1.