HLB gets global rights to Chinese liver cancer drug

South Korea’s HLB Therapeutics Co. on Tuesday said its US subsidiary Elevar Therapeutics has acquired the global rights excluding South Korea and China for the immunotherapy drug Camrelizumab, which is under development by China's Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine as a treatment for liver cancer.

Under the contract, Jiangsu Hengrui will receive cumulative royalties of up to $1 billion (1.3 trillion won) over 10 years depending on sales volume in the liver cancer field after the launch of Camrelizumab sales.

HLB and Elevar have not only secured global rights to their anti-cancer targeted agent Rivoceranib, which has passed global Phase 3 clinical trials for liver cancer, but also those for the immunotherapy drug Camrelizumab, which will be used as a combination therapy with Rivoceranib.

This strategic decision sought to raise HLB’s competitiveness in first-line liver cancer treatment in the US. After both drugs gain approval as treatments for liver cancer, Elevar plans to maximize their sale as a combination therapy through a collective commercialization process spanning marketing and sales.

HLB said it has gained momentum to secure global partnerships and begin early sales of liver cancer treatments whose approval for use in new drugs is expected in the first half of next year.

On July 14, Elevar received the green light for filing a new drug application for Rivoceranib in combination with Camrelizumab from the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as sales licenses from 15 American states. This allowed the setup of joint marketing and sales networks for both drugs, whose main clients will be major cancer hospitals in America.

Thus HLB expects rising synergy like growing awareness of both drugs, stimulation of prescriptions and reduction of cost.

“To gain a clear competitive advantage on the market for first-line liver cancer treatment, we judged that one company needed the rights to both drugs and marketing of them,” HLB Group Chairman Jin Yang-gon said. “Having secured the lead in sales of the two liver cancer treatments, we’ll stand tall with the best-in-class anti-cancer drugs in the liver cancer sector.”

Write to In-Hyuk Park at hyuk@hankyung.com