AstraZeneca PLC's spinout Viela Bio Inc. entered a collaboration with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop and commercialize its lead product candidate inebilizumab in nine Asian regions.
Viela's inebilizumab was granted orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 and by the European Medicines Agency in 2017 for treating neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, a disease in which the immune system attacks a patient's eye nerves and spinal cord.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently accepted Viela's biologics license application regarding inebilizumab for the same indication for review.
As part of the collaboration deal, Viela will get an up-front licensing fee of $30 million in addition to payments tied to certain development and commercial milestones as well as sales revenue.
Japanese pharmaceutical company Mitsubishi, under the collaboration, will target Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, Gaithersburg, Md.-based Viela Bio said in an Oct. 9 press release.
