HanAll Biopharma to get $10 million milestone from Roivant for autoimmune disease drug

HanAll Biopharma said it would receive a $10 million milestone payment from Roivant Sciences, a Switzerland-based company, for the technology transfer regarding an investigational autoimmune disease treatment HL161 (ingredient: batoclimab).

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, HanAll Biopharma said it was scheduled to receive a $10 million milestone from Roivant.

“The upcoming payment follows Immunovant’s starting of a global phase 3 trial of HL161 to treat myasthenia gravis (MG) as the first indication in June,” the company said.

After licensing-in the HL161 technology from HanAll in 2017, Roivant established Immunovant. Since then, Immunovant has been working on HL161.

HanAll Biopharma, a subsidiary of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, expects additional milestone fees because Immunovant is also preparing a phase 3 study to treat various diseases including thyroid eye disease, warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and Graves' disease.

“The technology transfer agreement could be terminated if additional clinical trials, approval, or commercialization are not realized in the future. We do not have obligation to return our milestone payments even if the deal is terminated,” HanAll Biopharma said in the filing.

The company added that it recognized technology royalty income as revenue until the expected commercialization.

“We will immediately disclose any changes in details of the agreement.”