Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Yuhan, a pharmaceutical and chemical company in South Korea, signed a contract with GI Innovation, a domestic bio-venture company, to co-develop and sell GI-301 in overseas markets except for Japan. GI-301 is a biologic for the treatment of allergic diseases, including atopic dermatitis and chronic idiopathic.

Yuhan said in a regulatory filing that the contract amount is 20 billion won ($16.6 million). If Yuhan develops and sells GI-301 directly, it will pay 89 billion won in milestones and 1.3 trillion won in loyalty by stage according to sales. Yuhan can transfer technology to a global pharmaceutical company in the process of developing GI-301. After transferring technology overseas, the two companies will equally share profits.

The immune system overreacts to an allergen by producing antibodies called Immunoglobulin E (IgE), a type of antibody that travels to cells. Allergic diseases are caused by the secretion of histamine when IgE is combined with fat cells or porcupines. GI-301 is a fusion protein that binds to IgE and prevents it from being combined with obesity cells.

GI Innovation will conduct phase 2 clinical trials in 2021. Yuhan said that in pre-clinical trials on monkeys, GI-301 showed superior inhibitory effects over omalizumab sold under the trade name Xolair, which has been used to control severe allergic asthma, which does not respond to high doses of corticosteroids and less widely for chronic spontaneous urticaria.