Sillajen Biotherapeutics has signed an agreement to license an investigational oncology drug from Switzerland-based Basilea Pharmaceutica International, the Korean biotech firm said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

The oncology drug codenamed BAL0891 is a potential first-in-class mitotic checkpoint inhibitor (MCI) that disrupts cell division, leading to tumor cell death. The phase 1 trial was approved in the United States.

Sillajen will have the right to exclusively develop and commercialize the drug. Under the terms of the agreement, Basilea will receive an upfront payment of $14 million from Sillajen and will be eligible to receive additional payments upon achievement of pre-specified regulatory and sales milestones plus royalties on future sales.

Basilea is a pharmaceutical and biotech company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, which was spun off from Roche in October 2020. It has developed antibiotics, antifungals, and oncology drugs.

Korean biotech firm Sillajen is at risk of being delisted from the country’s junior stock market Kosdaq for poor performance and has been requested to make up for its fragile pipeline to avoid delisting. Its stock trading has been suspended.

By Pulse

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