Everest Medicines Enters into Asset Purchase Agreement with Corxel Pharmaceuticals to Develop and Commercialize LNZ100 in Greater China
SHANGHAI, June 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, "Everest", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of innovative therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Corxel Pharmaceuticals Limited ("CORXEL"). Under the agreement, the Company has acquired the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize LNZ100 (1.44% aceclidine, U.S. brand name VIZZ) in Greater China, including Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan region. Everest will pay an upfront payment and potential development milestone payments. As part of this agreement, Everest will be assigned and transferred the rights and obligations under the LENZ License Agreement entered into by CORXEL in April 2022 and certain related ancillary agreements. This transaction is expected to further expand the Company's innovative product portfolio, strengthen its presence in ophthalmology, and enhance overall strategic synergies across its business.
LNZ100 is a once-daily prescription eye drop indicated for the treatment of presbyopia. Its active ingredient, aceclidine, is a small molecule acetylcholine receptor agonist that causes pupil contraction, or miosis, creating a pinhole effect that improves near vision. Studies have shown that aceclidine's mechanism of action (MOA) is well positioned to create a pinhole pupil effect while avoiding the impairment of distance vision called myopic shift. Aceclidine's unique pupil selective MOA, in which miosis is decoupled from myopic shift, is expected to allow it to target a broad patient population.
LNZ100 received approval in the United States in July 2025 and was commercially launched in October of the same year. In China, the New Drug Application (NDA) for LNZ100 was submitted in September 2025, with approval expected in the first quarter of 2027. The therapy has the potential to address a significant unmet medical need in China and position itself as a best-in-class, non-invasive treatment option for presbyopia.
"The acquisition of LNZ100 represents an important step in advancing Everest's strategic focus in ophthalmology. LNZ100 is a differentiated asset with meaningful clinical value and strong commercial potential in the treatment of presbyopia," said Yifang Wu, Chairman of the Board of Everest Medicines. "As the presbyopia patient population continues to grow, significant unmet needs remain in non-invasive treatment options. We believe LNZ100 has the potential to offer patients a novel, non-invasive therapeutic option and to further broaden the landscape of innovative ophthalmic treatments. The product has already been approved in the United States and is currently under regulatory review in China. We will continue to advance its development and commercialization to make this therapy accessible to presbyopia patients."
Ms. Sandy Mou, Board Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of CORXEL, said: "We are confident that Everest Medicines' strong commercialization capabilities will accelerate LNZ100's market access and bring this innovative treatment to more presbyopia patients in China.
Following this transaction, CORXEL's pipeline will be entirely focused on cardiometabolic therapies. The proceeds from the transaction will enable CORXEL to accelerate the global clinical development of its innovative cardiometabolic pipeline
Presbyopia is a physiological phenomenon associated with aging that results in a progressively worsening ability to see nearby objects clearly. It is caused by the gradual hardening of the lens. This results in a decline of the eye's adjustment function, and the inability to focus the image of nearby objects on the retina, leading to a decline in near vision. Studies have shown that the onset of presbyopia typically occurs around the age of 38, reaching a prevalence rate of nearly 100 percent at the age of 52 in China. Currently, the treatment options for presbyopia are very limited. Wearing glasses requires frequent removal and insertion, causing many inconveniences in work and life. Surgery, as an irreversible and invasive operation, has very limited acceptance. There are no approved drugs for the treatment of presbyopia in China and the medical need for non-invasive, safe, efficient and reversible treatments for presbyopia remains unsolved.
The NDA acceptance of LNZ100 by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of the People's Republic of China is based on the data from China Phase 3 Trial. The study was a Phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study, including a 4-week efficacy study followed by a 6-month extension safety study, designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LNZ100 (an aceclidine-based ophthalmic solution) in participants with presbyopia. The objectives were to assess the potential of LNZ100 to improve near vision among Chinese presbyopia patients and to evaluate the efficacy and safety profiles. The trial has enrolled 300 participants.
The results showed that LNZ100 achieved the primary endpoint and key secondary endpoints, with statistically significant three-lines or greater improvement in Best Corrected Distance Visual Acuity (BCDVA) at near, and maintaining their optimal distance visual acuity (i.e., not losing 5 or more letters). Results also showed (all p<0.0001):
- Rapid onset: 84% and 69% achieved two-lines and three-lines or greater improvement at 30 minutes, respectively.
- 3 hours post treatment: 88% and 74% achieved two-lines and three-lines or greater improvement respectively,and maintained their optimal distance visual acuity (i.e., not losing 5 or more letters).
- Long duration: 61% and 30% achieved two-lines and three-lines or greater improvement at 10 hours, respectively.
- LNZ100 was well-tolerated with no serious treatment-related adverse events observed in the trial.
About LNZ100
Developed by LENZ Therapeutics (Nasdaq: LENZ), LNZ100 eye drops received U.S. FDA approval in July 2025 under the brand name VIZZ. CORXEL acquired the Greater China rights for its development and commercialization in April 2022.
LNZ100 is formulated with aceclidine, a miotic, and designed to achieve optimal pupil diameter without impacting distance vision, a key limitation of other miotics. Miotics are compounds that cause pupil constriction, or miosis, creating a pinhole effect that enables better focus of incoming light from near objects onto the retina. Research has shown that a pupil diameter below two millimeters (2 mm) is optimal for presbyopia treatment and results in clinically meaningful improvement in near vision.
Unlike other miotics such as pilocarpine and carbachol, aceclidine's mechanism of action is pupil-selective, meaning it can activate the iris sphincter muscle and cause miosis of the pupil to a diameter below 2 mm without overstimulating the ciliary muscles that can cause a myopic shift and impair distance vision. As a result, aceclidine does not require any remaining accommodation to improve near vision, broadening its benefits to older presbyopes whose lens has lost this capacity. Therefore, we expect that users may be able to benefit from treatment even as they age from mid-40s to well into their mid-70s and across a broad range of refractive errors, as demonstrated in clinical testing to date.
About Everest Medicines
Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in global markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record both in China and with leading global pharmaceutical companies.
The Company's therapeutic areas of focus include CKM (cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic), autoimmune, ophthalmology and critical care. Everest Medicines has developed a fully integrated commercialization platform that combines omnichannel commercial capabilities with end-to-end product lifecycle management. Leveraging its proprietary mRNA platform, the Company is advancing its existing pipeline, including mRNA in vivo CAR-T and mRNA cancer vaccines, while selectively expanding into additional high-value therapeutic areas with blockbuster potential, and accelerating its global expansion. For more information, please visit the Company's website: www.everestmedicines.com.
CORXEL is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapies for patients with cardiometabolic conditions around the world. CORXEL is led by an experienced management team that has a strong track record of identifying, in-licensing and developing attractive clinical product candidates directed at validated targets with proven mechanisms of action (MoAs). CORXEL's diverse portfolio of clinical-stage product candidates has the potential to redefine treatment standards and address key limitations of current therapies for multiple cardiometabolic indications. CORXEL is developing selective small molecule compounds across the cardiometabolic spectrum with the lead product candidate CX11, an oral small molecule GLP-1 RA under clinical development for obesity and overweight conditions and T2DM, JX10, a thrombolytic and anti-inflammatory agent for acute ischemic stroke and CX12, an oral small molecule amylin RA under pre-clinical development. CORXEL also has additional small molecule programs in development targeting validated obesity targets. For further information about CORXEL, please visit www.corxelbio.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements, including descriptions regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company or its officers with respect to the business operations and financial condition of the Company, which can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, or other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company and are unforeseeable. Therefore, the actual results may differ from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and assumptions, such as future changes and developments in our business, competitive environment, political, economic, legal and social conditions. The Company or any of its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors or representatives has no obligation and does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this news release, except as required by law.
SOURCE Everest Medicines
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