South Korea’s Huons Co. said on Wednesday it has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with U.S. pharmaceutical company LIPAC Oncology LLC to develop, manufacture and commercialize the latter’s TSD-001 for all indications in Korea. Huons did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Huons provides a wide variety of health and wellness solutions, and LIPAC Oncology is a pharma devoted to a proprietary proliposomal delivery platform to enhance and reformulate proven cancer drugs into more effective treatments.

TSD-001 is a proliposomal intravesical paclitaxel formulation (PLIP), currently in development for intravesical administration in the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, which is a common and highly recurrent disease. This cancer type has a 70 percent recurrence rate up to five years.

If approved, TSD-001 would be the first chemotherapeutic agent approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this indication in almost two decades, according to LIPAC Oncology. Huons said the drug could be launched worldwide by 2026.

A clinical trial of patients in the U.S. confirmed that TSD-001 has fewer side effects as the cancer did not recur until 12 months and did not have systemic exposure. LIPAC Oncology is currently completing phase 1/2a clinical trials in the U.S. and plans to conduct a phase 2b trial in 2020. Huons will enter a phase 3 trial in Korea upon positive data from the U.S.

Huons shares on Wednesday closed 3.66 percent lower at 42,150 won ($35.16) in Seoul.

By Kim Byung-ho and Minu Kim

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