CymaBay Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CBAY) recently announced entering into exclusive license agreement with Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. The agreement will ensure that the two work in collaboration for commercialization and development of arhalofenate in the U.S.
As per the transaction, CymaBay shall be affiliated to receive $15 million in the form of upfront and milestone payments. On completion of certain milestones, regulatory achievements and specific development, CymaBay will also be entitled to $190 million payments. Apart from this, the agreement will allow the company to receive royalties on arhalofenate products’ sale.
The commercialization and development cost will be borne by Kowa Pharmaceuticals.
FDA’s Agreement for Scope of arhalofenate products
Earlier, the company had also taken the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on board for estimating the scale and scope of arhalofenate Phase 3 program. The cost of the program was then estimated to be $100 million. For the commercialization rights across the world, CymaBay Therapeutics Inc will be the sole bearer.
Kowa vested responsibility for development and commercialization of arhalofenate
The CEO and President of CymaBay, Harold Van Wart said that Kowa comes on board with trusted commercialization and development capabilities. The company CEO stated that Kowa had earlier too “established primary care sales force” for commercialization of arhalofenate products.
Kowa has established strength in the area it is vested responsibilities with. The agreement, two believe, will allow CymaBay to focus on internal strategy, while the development and marketing shall be vested with a company that has expertise in it.
Arhalofenate is a therapy directed to treat gout. It is an oral medicine, to be directed once a day. The medicine, in its Phase 2 clinical test, showed valuable results by bringing down serum uric acid, thus reducing gout flares. It is now, being developed as a combination treatment with febuxostat. The company is now preceding towards the final stages of introducing the product in market.