Viridian Therapeutics partners with Kissei Pharmaceutical to advance treatments for thyroid eye disease in Japan, enhancing patient care and market potential.
Viridian Therapeutics and Kissei Pharmaceutical announced an exclusive licensing agreement and collaboration to develop and commercialize veligrotug and VDRN-003 in Japan. Viridian (known for discovering, developing, and commercializing rare and serious disease treatments) believes that Kissei’s strong track record of research and development can advance the two potential thyroid eye disease (TED) treatments.
Steve Mahoney, Viridian’s president and CEO spoke on the new partnership saying, “After running a very competitive partnering process, we are thrilled to partner with Kissei to bring these potential best-in-class medicines to TED patients in Japan. Kissei has an established strong track record of successfully developing and commercializing in-licensed, rare disease medicines. Kissei shares our enthusiasm and commitment to these programs, and we believe Kissei is an ideal partner for us in Japan. Both companies look forward to moving quickly to advance these novel treatment options for patients.”1
TED, an autoimmune condition, can be characterized through inflammation, growth, and damage to tissue surrounding the eye, which can lead to discomfort, double vison, swelling, and other symptoms. Viridian developed veligrotug and VDRN-003 as potential best-in-class medicines to assist in treating the rare disease as both molecules are anti-insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor antibodies designed to treat TED.
VRDN-003 is being developed as a potential best-in-class treatment and is a subcutaneous half-life extended anti-insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor antibody formulated with the same binding domain as veligrotug. Viridian’s other TED treatment, veligrotug is the intravenously delivered anti-insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor antibody and is expected to continue advancements along with VRDN-003 under Kissei.
Mutsuo Kanzawa, chairman and CEO of Kissei touched on advancing both TED treatments along with their pipeline saying, “As we seek to further expand our pipeline in rare and intractable diseases, we are very excited by the potential of veligrotug and VRDN-003 to address the significant unmet needs of TED patients in Japan, based on veligrotug’s strong and consistent phase 3 clinical data in THRIVE and THRIVE-2 . This collaboration reinforces our mission to contribute to the health of people around the world through innovative pharmaceutical products, and we are committed to bringing important treatment options to Japanese patients as rapidly as possible.”1
The official terms of the license agreement provide Kissei with the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize veligrotug and VRDN-003 in Japan, with Viridian receiving an upfront payment of $70 million and the opportunity to receive an additional $315 million in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments. Viridian also has the potential to collect tiered royalties in the percentage range of 20 to mid-30s on net sales in Japan. This bestows Kissei the responsibility for all development, regulatory and commercialization labor and expenses in Japan.
