Yuhan and Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (JJIM), formerly known as Janssen, ended a research project after securing approval in the US for a similar drug.
The South Korean pharma company Yuhan and JJIM terminated work developing a fourth-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a J&J spokesperson confirmed to Endpoints News.
The research project ended after the companies won FDA approval last month for their drug Lazcluze in combination with J&J’s Rybrevant as a first-line treatment for EGFR-mutated NSCLC.
The Phase 3 trial supporting the approval showed the combo led to a lower incidence of secondary EGFR resistance mutations in patients, “reducing the need for further development of fourth-generation EGFR TKIs in this space,” J&J said.
J&J originally entered into a licensing partnership with Yuhan in 2018 to develop Lazcluze, and the deal remains unaffected, according to the J&J spokesperson.
Yuhan develops prescription medicines, including antibiotics and antivirals, as well as manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Meanwhile, it inked a new $80 million (107.6 billion won) deal to supply Gilead with APIs for HIV drugs. There are limited details about the contract, which runs to September of next year, according to a regulatory filing on Friday in Korea. Yuhan’s stock was up by about 15% on Friday morning.
Gilead has long focused on HIV R&D, and it brought to market the first once-daily oral medication for pre-exposure prophylaxis. The company has 11 approved HIV drugs and has 11 ongoing clinical trials, according to its pipeline.
In recent months, Gilead’s HIV injection, lenacapavir, has shown that it reduced the risk of HIV infections by at least 96% in a pair of pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials.
Yuhan and Gilead first struck a deal in 2019, with Yuhan receiving $15 million upfront and potential milestone payments of up to $770 million. The deal gave Gilead rights to develop and commercialize two of Yuhan’s small molecules for advanced fibrosis related to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or MASH.