Japanese pharmaceutical company Santen Pharmaceutical and China-based biotech company Arctic Vision have teamed up for the development of Arctic Vision’s ARVN001.
Under the terms of the agreement, Santen will obtain exclusive rights to commercialise Arctic Vision’s potential treatment in China, except Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
In exchange, Arctic Vision will receive up to $85m in upfront, and milestone payments.
Also, Santen and Arctic Vision will leverage their expertise and insights to strengthen their collaboration in the Chinese ophthalmology market.
Santen board director, and chief operating officer Rie Nakajima said: “Through this partnership with Arctic Vision, an ophthalmic biotech company that continues to pioneer new developments, we will be able to bring this potentially first reimbursable UME treatment to patients in China.
“This partnership has the potential to create new opportunities for Santen to address unmet needs related to the posterior segment eye diseases in China.”
ARVN001 is a suspension of the corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide administered to the suprachoroidal space to treat uveitic macular oedema (UME), and other indications.
Arctic Vision licenced ARVN001 for the Asia-Pacific region from Clearside Biomedical.
Clearside patented the suprachoroidal space (SCS) microinjector technology for delivering the drug to the suprachoroidal space and has received FDA approval for the drug.
The suprachoroidal injection is said to enable rapid and adequate dispersion of the drug to the back of the eye for prolonged effect and to avoid harm to the surrounding healthy parts.
ARVN001 is currently sold in the US by Bausch + Lomb, under the brand name XIPERE.
Arctic Vision founder, chairman and CEO Eddy Wu said: “ARVN001 is the first and only suprachoroidal space injection therapy for UME in China, and Arctic Vision has made great efforts moving the programme from clinical trial to NDA stage.
“We are very excited to enter into this partnership with Santen on the commercialisation of this cutting-edge therapy, with their strong commercial capability, we look forward to maximising the great potential of this therapy and bringing the innovative eyecare solutions to the UME patients and professionals in China.”
Furthermore, Arctic Vision is currently developing ARVN001 for other ocular retinal diseases and has announced positive results from a China Phase 3 study, earlier this year.
