Hutchmed (China) Ltd on Friday said Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals Ltd has exercised options to licence two drug candidates as part of a strategic partnership.

The immunotherapy developer, which was founded in Hong Kong, said as part of the collaboration, it granted Inmagene exclusive options to multiple drug candidates solely for the treatment of immunological disease.

Since the execution of the option agreement, Inmagene has funded and led IMG-004 and IMG-007 to clinical development, Hutchmed said.

For each of the drug candidates, Hutchmed is entitled to receive potential payments subject to the achievement of development milestones of up to $92.5 million and subject to the achievement of commercial milestones of up to $135 million, as well as royalties upon commercialization.

The firm added that following the exercise of the options, as well as Hutchmed’s receipt of ordinary shares representing approximately 7.5% of shares in Inmagene, Inmagene will be granted an exclusive licence to further develop, manufacture and commercialise the two drug candidates worldwide.

Chief Executive Officer Weiguo Su said: ‘This is an important step for the progress of these two drug candidates in immunological diseases and demonstrates the potential of the candidates discovered by Hutchmed. The success of this strategic partnership provides further validation of Hutchmed’s in-house R&D engine and our collaborative approach to developing some of our innovative drug candidates. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Inmagene and seeing the impact these drug candidates could have for patients with immunological diseases.’

Shares in Hutchmed fell 1.3% to 199.40 pence each in London on Friday morning.

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