AprilBio(397030) will additionally transfer materials needed for the clinical trials and production of the autoinflammatory disease drug candidate "EVO301," which it out-licensed to U.S.-based Evommune, and will receive about 600 million won.
AprilBio said on the 21st that it signed a material transfer agreement with Evommune for EVO301. The total contract amount is $431,28.17, which is about 599.17 million won based on the exchange rate that day (1,393 won per dollar). That equals 27.6% of AprilBio's sales last year.
Under the agreement, AprilBio will hand over to Evommune 325 vials of a master cell bank (MCB) and 162 vials of a reference standard needed to produce EVO301. It will also transfer 80 vials of drug product, but that is without charge.
An MCB is a kind of "production-use original cell source" that stores cells used to manufacture medicines for a long time. In this agreement, the MCB transfer price is $415,729.61, and the reference standard is $14,398.56.
This agreement is a follow-up to AprilBio's out-licensing of EVO301 to Evommune last year. In June 2024, AprilBio signed a technology transfer agreement with Evommune to hand over global development and commercialization rights to EVO301. Since then, it has sequentially transferred related materials to support Evommune's clinical development and production.
The contract takes effect on the 24th, and payment is to be made within 30 days of invoice issuance.