Aslan acquires global rights to cancer treatment

Singapore-based Aslan Pharmaceuticals has acquired the full global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise a cancer treatment.

The biotech company, which specialises in developing new treatments to fight cancers that are prevalent in Asia, acquired the rights to varlitinib from Array BioPharma.

Aslan said that varlitinib has demonstrated strong efficacy in studies it has conducted in biliary tract, gastric, breast and colorectal cancer.

The new licensing agreement replaces a deal signed in 2011 to develop and sublicense varlitinib. At the time, Aslan was not granted commercial rights to the treatment.

Varlitinib is a small molecule pan-HER inhibitor that targets the human epidermal growth factor receptors HER1, HER2, HER3 and HER4.

The receptors can be mutated or overexpressed in many tumours, which can cause excessive proliferative activity and uncontrolled growth.

Aslan will pay Array $12 million when the deal is signed, and will provide a further payment of up to $12 million within the next 12 months, together with up to $30 million of development milestones and $75 million of commercial milestones.

The deal was announced yesterday, January 3.

Carl Firth, CEO of Aslan, said: “Acquiring full global commercial rights to varlitinib is a significant positive move for Aslan. The new agreement allows us to retain much more downstream value from our own commercial and future partnering activities.”

LSIPR recently interviewed Ben Goodger, general counsel of Aslan, to find out more about the licensing deals that the company undertakes.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.