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.