Dive Brief:
- In a deal that could be worth up to ¥21.45 billion ($193 million), Ono Pharmaceutical has snapped up Asian rights to Karyopharm Therapeutics' lead and second-generation selective inhibitors of nuclear export (SINE) molecules selinexor and KPT-8602.
- Karyopharm will get a one-time upfront payment of ¥2.5 billion ($22.3 million), and up to ¥19.15 billion ($170.7 million) in milestone payments. The deal also includes low double-digit royalties.
- Ono gets rights to the molecules for diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention of cancer in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Karyopharm retains rights in the rest of the world.
Dive Insight:
Selinexor has had a slightly complicated year. In March, it was put on a partial clinical hold pausing enrollment for four mid- and late-stage multiple myeloma (MM) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCBL) trials. But the hold was cleared up after it came to light that it had simply been an administrative error on the part of Karyopharm. Selinexor is also in a Phase 3 study for liposarcoma.
Maury Raycroft, equity analyst at Jefferies, sees the Ono deal as validating Karyopharm's approach, and he is upbeat about selinexor's potential.
"Selinexor's single-agent activity [which has been] demonstrated in a range of difficult indications as well as the drug's differentiated MOA make the drug appealing," Raycroft wrote in a note to clients.
"Karyopharm [has] reported very good single agent objective response rate (33.3%) for selinexor in DLBCL. They have shown compelling activity in MM with 20% ORR in penta-refractory patients. Most recently, in liposarcoma, Karyopharm has announced… a 40% reduction in risk of progression or death vs. placebo. We are also very interested to see first half 2018 data for selinexor in combination with Darzalex [Janssen's daratumumab), which we believe could be meaningful for the program," he added.
Ono has been building up its oncology portfolio. In June this year, the Japanese company inked a deal with Array BioPharma to develop two of the biotech's cancer drugs, the MEK inhibitor binimetinib and a BRAF inhibitor encorafenib.