The two companies will form a joint development team to oversee the development of tesmilifene in gastric cancer. Shin Poong will fully fund development costs and provide an undisclosed amount of up-front, milestone and royalty payments.
In addition, Shin Poong will launch a bridging study in the local population in calendar 2005 in order to allow the breast cancer indication currently under study by YM to be launched in Korea and other Asian countries.
Shin Poong recently completed recruitment for a gastric cancer study with its proprietary taxane drug, Padexol.
Tesmilifene has been demonstrated to improve the effect of the known chemotherapies in cancer. In a previous phase III clinical trial, the combination of tesmilifene with doxorubicin demonstrated a very significant increase in the overall survival of women with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer compared to those treated with doxorubicin alone.
The success of that trial is the basis for combining tesmilifene with a doxorubicin containing regimen in the upcoming gastric cancer trials.
“This agreement is the first key milestone in our strategy to expand tesmilifene’s market potential both geographically and by demonstrating its efficacy in additional cancer patient populations,” said David Allan, chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences.
Shin Poong expects that tesmilifene could be launched as early as 2008 in gastric cancer.