Korea’s Chong Kun Dang (CKD) announced on Monday it has signed a partnership contract with an undisclosed U.S. pharmaceutical company operating in Japan over its investigational anemia drug CKD-11101.

The Japanese entity will have an exclusive right to develop and market the biosimilar version of Novel Erythropoiesis Stimulating Protein (NESP) that corrects anemia in patients with chronic renal insufficiency.

CKD will receive an upfront fee, milestone and royalty payments from the U.S headquarters. But it did not disclose the deal value.

Shares of CKD closed Monday up 1.14 percent at 133,000 won.

CKD-11101 was successfully evaluated in Korea last year. CKD hopes to get regulatory approval this year and launch it by April 2019. When launched, it could be the world’s first NESP biosimilar. The partnership will be a bridge to entering the Japanese market and further to the global market whose value stands at 2.8 trillion won ($2.6 billion), the company said.

Besides CKD-11101, CKD has several promising biologic drugs in the pipeline, including a long-acting protein product and an antibody agent. It is conducting a pre-clinical study of CKD-701, a biosimilar version of Lucentis for the treatment of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration. Another biologic drug CKD-702 under a pre-clinical study is designed to treat cancer patients who show resistance to previous targeted cancer drugs.

CKD-506, an autoimmune disease drug, is due to enter a phase II clinical trial in Europe this year. A phase I study for CKD-504, an investigational drug for the treatment of rare disease Huntington`s disease, is underway in the U.S.

By Kim Hye-soon and Minu Kim

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