Debiopharm signs licensing agreement with Airmid

Under the terms of the agreement, Debiopharm will pay Airmid an option fee for signature of the contract. If Debiopharm exercises its exclusive option to license-in the product for further development and worldwide commercialization, it will pay Airmid an up-front and milestones, as well as running royalties for the license.

Preclinical data show that ShK peptides suppress the activation and inhibit the proliferation of auto-reactive human and rat T effector memory cells at concentrations 20 to 80 times lower than the proliferation of naive and central memory T cells.

Moreover, ShK peptides improve disease symptoms in animal models of several autoimmune disorders. This suggests that a ShK peptide might prove useful in the therapy of autoimmune disorders – in particular, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis – without impairment of the immune response.