Hangzhou Chance Pharmaceuticals will pay Acorda Therapeutics $2.5 million up front for distribution rights to Inbrija levodopa DPI in China plus another $6 million in “a near term milestone payment” as well as $3 million on approval and as much as $132.5 million in sales milestones. Chance will also pay by the carton for Acorda to supply Inbrija to the company. Acorda sold the facility that manufactures Inbrija to Catalent in 2021 and signed a new supply agreement with Catalent for the DPI in January 2023.
According to the announcement, Chance Pharmaceuticals founder and CEO Donghao Chen has significant experience with the ARCUS particle engineering and delivery technology used for Inbrija having been a post-doc in the Langer Lab at MIT where ARCUS was developed and at AIR and Alkermes, where he was CMC lead for AIR inhaled insulin, which was also based on ARCUS technology.
Chen commented, “We are excited to be collaborating with Acorda to make Inbrija available to people suffering from Parkinson’s disease in China. OFF episodes have a significant impact on the lives of those living with Parkinson’s and their families, and we are proud to be working to bring a new treatment option to this community with unmet medical needs.”
Acorda President and CEO Ron Cohen said, “Our agreement with Chance is an important milestone toward providing Inbrija to the world’s largest population of people with Parkinson’s. The Chance team are experts in inhalation technologies, and we look forward to working with them to achieve regulatory approval and to provide this important medication in China.”
In Europe, Inbrija DPI was approved for the treatment of OFF periods in Parkinson’s disease in 2019, and over the past year, Esteve has launched Inbrija in Germany and Spain. In the US, Inbrija was approved by the FDA in December 2018 and was launched by Acorda in February 2019. In Latin America, Biopas Laboratories acquired rights to Inbrija in 9 countries, including Brazil and Mexico, in May 2022.
Read the Acorda Therapeutics press release.
