Hanall Biopharma said Tuesday it has licensed out two new bio drugs under development to China’s HarbourBioMed, at $81 million (91.5 billion won).

The new drugs for technology transfer were antibody drug HL161 for autoimmune disease, and dry eye treatment ‘HL036’.

The company received financial support from the new drug development division of Korea Drug Development Fund_{범부처신약개발사업단} for developing HL161, and from the bio technology division of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE)_{산업통상자원부}, for HL036.

The contract gave HarbourBioMed an exclusive right to conduct clinical trials about HL161과 HL036, produce them, get approval and sell in China.

Hanall Biopharma_{한올바이오파마}(CEO: Park Seung-kuk_박승국 and Yoon Jae-choon_윤재춘) will get technology fee worth $81 million as total royalty in fixed and phased payment -- down payment of $4 million, and step-by-step milestones of $77 million.

HL161 is an antibody drug with a new mechanism to disassemble and remove pathogenic autoantibody that attacks a body to cause autoimmune diseases, receiving attention as the first-in-class antibody drug.

It is likely to improve effectiveness, price, and safety sharply compared with the existing treatments, such as plasmapheresis or Intravenous immunoglobulin(IVIG). HL161 has finished pre-clinical trials and is preparing for phase 1 clinical trial in Australia.

HL036 is a bio-better product, which Hanall is jointly developing with Daewoong Pharmaceutical. It drastically increases penetrability and uses modified protein HL036, whose function to control TNF is 160 times higher than other protein.

The company finished phase 1 trial and will conduct phase 2 trial with the U.S. CRO, Ora, in the second half of this year.

“I am pleased to work with HarbourBioMed that has specialty and capability in the development of the autoimmune medicines,” co-CEO Park said. “We will also complete license-out contracts about HL161 and HL036 with advanced countries such as the U.S. and Europe soon.”

lhs@docdocdoc.co.kr

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