Aslan outlicenses atopic dermatitis antibody in $138.5M deal

Aslan Pharmaceuticals granted exclusive development and commercialization rights in Japan for an IL-13 antibody to a Japanese drugmaker in a deal worth up to $138.5 million.

As part of the deal announced Thursday, Zenyaku Kogyo, in exchange for rights to the drug in atopic dermatitis and all other indications, will give Aslan $12 million upfront and another $3 million once certain conditions are met from a Phase IIb trial readout that is slated for early July. The placebo-controlled trial is evaluating eblasakimab in 300 biologic-naive patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis over 16 weeks.

The deal also includes $123.5 million in milestones, plus double-digit royalties.

Aslan’s shares $ASLN fell roughly 10% in trading on Thursday morning.

Carl Firth

Aslan, which has offices in California and Singapore, had been looking for partners to help develop eblasakimab, its lead candidate, in Japan, according to Aslan founder and CEO Carl Firth.

“We recognized that it was important to have a Japan partner onboard sooner rather than later,” he said.

Zenyaku plans to start a Phase I study for eblasakimab in Japan in the first half of 2024.

Eblasakimab is a monoclonal antibody targeting the IL-13 receptor — with the goal of inhibiting interleukins 4 and 13 (IL-4 and IL-13), the same two interleukins that Dupixent, Sanofi and Regeneron’s blockbuster antibody, go after. Aslan in-licensed the antibody from CSL in 2014 and later secured full global rights in 2019.

The company will likely seek a partner for other major markets, such as the US and Europe — with Firth noting that “we wanted to make sure that this deal didn’t prevent us from going into a deal where potentially we could offer truly global territory.”

“This allows us to have the best of both worlds,” Firth added.

Aslan has the option to reacquire rights to the drug in Japan at some point in the future.

Aslan is also running a Phase II trial in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis who had been on Dupixent, also known as dupilumab. Topline data are supposed to come from that trial early next year.

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