Calliditas Therapeutics AB (“Calliditas”) and Everest Medicines II Limited (“Everest”) announced that they have entered into a license agreement, in which Everest will develop and commercialize Calliditas’ leading drug candidate Nefecon in Greater China and Singapore for the chronic autoimmune kidney disease IgA Nephropathy (IgAN).
Under the terms of the agreement, Calliditas will receive an initial upfront payment of 15M USD at signing of the agreement, as well as future payments linked to pre-defined development, regulatory and commercialization milestones up to an additional 106M USD, including an option worth up to 20M USD for the development of Nefecon in other potential indications. Everest will also pay typical royalties on net sales.
“We are excited to be entering into this partnership with Everest Medicines to expand Nefecon’s market reach to China, where there is a significant unmet medical need for this large patient population. We look forward to working in close collaboration with Everest Medicines to bring the innovative approach of Nefecon, which has shown great promise in our large Phase 2b study, to IgAN patients as rapidly as possible. Everest Medicines offers a unique combination of strong expertise in the clinical development and regulatory arena, and an innovative approach for this market,” said Renée Aguiar-Lucander, CEO of Calliditas Therapeutics AB.