Drug maker Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited has entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Japanese pharma player Meiji and Korean major Dong-A ST to commercialise DMB-3115, a proposed biosimilar to Ustekinumab.

Ustekinumab is a recombinant monoclonal antibody for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

This makes Ahmedabad-based Intas the first Indian company to launch a biosimilar product in the EU.

Under the terms of agreement, Intas has been granted exclusive licence rights to commercialise DMB-3115 worldwide, excluding Japan, Korea and certain countries in Asia.

Meiji and Dong-A ST will develop and manufacture DMB-3115 and supply the product to Intas and its worldwide affiliates.

“We are truly excited by this partnership, which brings together the development expertise of Meiji and Dong-A ST with the extensive commercial reach of Intas,” said Binish Chudgar, Vice-Chairman, Intas.

Commenting on the development, Chrys Kokino, President of Accord BioPharma Inc, the US specialty subsidiary of Intas, said, “This agreement underlines our vision and commitment to increasing access to life-changing medicines that can make a real difference to patient lives across the world.”

Korean pharma major Dong-A exports its products to leading pharmaceutical companies in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Japanese Meiji is engaged in the therapeutic areas of infectious diseases and central nervous system disorders. Meiji entered pharma space with the launch of penicillin in 1946, since then it has been accumulating proprietary technologies on R&D and manufacture of small molecules as well as biotherapeutics.

comment COMMENT NOW