Simcere and JW Pharmaceutical Announce Collaboration and License Agreement for Anti-Gout Drug Candidate URC-102 in China

NANJING, China and SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Simcere Pharmaceutical Group and JW Pharmaceutical (KRX:001060, hereinafter called "JWP") announced a collaboration and exclusive license agreement for anti-gout drug candidate URC-102 in China (including Chinese Hongkong & Macao)

According to the agreement, Simcere will be responsible for the clinical research, registration and commercialization of URC-102 in China. Under the terms of the agreement, JWP will receive upfront payment, milestones and sales royalties from commercialization in China.

"The incidence of gout is rising year on year in China, presenting a large clinical need," said Dr. Peng Wang, SVP of Simcere. "JWP has an excellent research team and expertise in new molecular entity discovery & development, which will be matched with the extensive experience of Simcere in clinical development and commercialization of innovative products of rheumatic diseases. We are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with JWP and hope we will bring URC-102 to patients soon with our joint efforts."

"Given its growth potential, China has been our primary target to build strategic partnerships. It is a tremendous pleasure to select Simcere as the partner for URC102, an outstanding company with strong capabilities of new drug development as well as marketing and sales," said Dr. SY Lee, who is the Chief of Corporate Development Division at JWP. He also added that "we will seek further diversified opportunities for URC-102's global expansion as the gout market is rapidly growing and there is high demand for safe and effective new drugs due to the recently reported safety issues of the conventional gout medicines."

About Gout & URC-102

Gout is a serious, progressive and debilitating form of inflammatory arthritis. In most cases, it is caused by inefficient excretion of uric acid, resulting in hyperuricemia and the formation of crystal deposits of uric acid. At present, the prevalence of hyperuricemia in China is 10%, and there are about 130 million people at risk. The number of patients who suffer from gout is about 17 million, which has become the second most common metabolic disease in China. In addition, currently available treatments for gout are limited by their efficacy and safety profiles, presenting a huge unmet medical need for the condition. 

URC-102 is a selective inhibitor of uric acid transporter (URAT-1). It is currently under Phase IIb clinical evaluation in patients with gout in South Korea.

About Simcere

Simcere is a research and development-driven Chinese pharmaceutical company with a State Key Lab of Translational Medicine and Innovative Drug Development, committed to delivering high quality and effective therapies to patients. Simcere achieves this by focusing its efforts on therapeutic areas of oncology, neurology, inflammation/immunology diseases etc. By leverage of its commercial capability, all top products of the company have a leading market share in China. Simcere continues to promote the advance of international scientific and medical breakthroughs through an open and collaborative R&D strategy, and extensive strategic partnerships with several multi-national companies.

For more information, please visit: www.simcere.com

About JW Pharmaceutical

JW Pharmaceutical Corporation was founded in 1945 under the founding principles of "Respect for Life" and "Frontier Spirit" and has been leading Korea's pharmaceutical market with a portfolio of outstanding original medicinal products. Since its establishment of the central laboratory in 1983, it has focused on R&D for First-in-Class drugs and built a world-class core technology platform. Its new drug pipelines are in various areas including cancer therapy, immune disease treatment and regenerative medicine. It also carries out diverse research activities through open innovation to meet ever-changing global needs.

It is listed on the Korea Exchange Korea Exchange (KRX) under the symbol "001060."

For more information, please visit www.jw-pharma.co.kr

SOURCE Simcere