MEI Pharma, Kyowa Kirin Enter Global Partnership

Late-stage pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, MEI Pharma, and Japanese drug discovery company, Kyowa Kirin, have entered into a global license, development, and commercialization agreement for ME-401. The agreement was announced in an April 14, 2020 press release.

The global partnership is expected to enable the further development and commercialization of ME-401, which is an investigational treatment that is being studied in an ongoing Phase II trial in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. If the trial is successful, it is possible that the results may support accelerated approval of marketing approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Under the terms of the agreement, MEI Pharma will receive an upfront payment of $100 million from Kyowa Kirin and the companies will co-develop and co-promote ME-401 within the United States. Additionally, dependent on the achievement of certain milestones, MEI Pharma could receive up to $582.5 million in supplementary payments from Kyowa Kirin.

“This global partnership with Kyowa Kirin is a key step to achieving our goal of broadly developing and commercializing ME-401, optimizing the opportunity to benefit patients across multiple B-cell malignancies inside and outside the US, and also building value for our shareholders,” said David M. Urso, J.D., chief operating officer and general counsel of MEI Pharma, in the press release. “The decision to expand our alliance with Kyowa Kirin is based on the successful relationship we’ve built working together to date under our 2018 Japan license agreement, and the respect we have for Kyowa Kirin and their ability to jointly execute our shared vision of ME-401 in the US and around the world.”

“I am delighted to expand our agreement with MEI Pharma for the development and commercialization of ME-401 all over the world,” added Tomohiro Sudo, executive officer, director of Strategic Product Planning Department for Kyowa Kirin, in the press release. “We believe that ME-401 may be an important new treatment option for patients and further enhances our global oncology pipeline.”

Source: MEI Pharma