Hangzhou Chance Pharmaceuticals is paying an undisclosed amount up front, plus milestone payments and royalties, to acquire the rights to develop and commercialize Aerami Therapeutics’ AER-901 inhaled imatinib for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, Aerami has announced. Aerami will continue to develop AER-901 for the US market and for other territories and said that it expects to have results from a Phase 1 trial by the end of the year.
In June 2020, Aerami announced that it had partnered with Vectura on development of the inhaled imatinib, which Vectura was developing itself prior to its 2019 announcement that it would transform into a CDMO in 2019. AER-901 is delivered via Vectura’s Fox handheld vibrating mesh nebulizer.
Aerami CEO Steve Thornton said, “We are delighted to be working with Chance on this important product in China and see this as further validation of our drug device combination approach to this terrible disease. We believe that AER-901 has the potential to improve the quality of PAH patients’ lives based on the significant efficacy demonstrated in a proof of concept Phase 3 trial completed with oral imatinib.”
Hangzhou Chance Pharmaceuticals CEO Donghao Chen commented, “External collaboration is an integral part of our corporate strategy to establish Chance as a leader in inhalation therapies. Chance is committed to develop innovative and game changing therapies for patients in China and the rest of the world. This collaboration expands our pipeline to PAH, a disease with a very poor prognosis despite tremendous progress achieved in the last decade. We believe the inhalation delivery can avoid the side effects of oral imatinib and are very pleased to be able to develop this innovative therapy for PAH patients in the Greater China region.”
Read the Aerami Therapeutics press release.
