AFRICA – Kintor Pharmaceutical Limited has announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Development on the commercialization of proxalutamide for the treatment of COVID-19 in 28 African countries.

Kintor and Fosun Pharma Development will collaborate on the emergency use authorization applications, promotion, and sales of proxalutamide for the treatment of COVID-19 indication.

Proxalutamide is a new-generation androgen receptor (AR) antagonist. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Kintor Pharmaceutical has made rapid progress on the study on proxalutamide as a potential treatment for COVID-19 indication.

The drug is also targeted at the treatment of prostate cancer and breast cancer.it will also be marketed in Asian countries.

According to the licensing agreement, Fosun Pharma Development will be granted exclusive rights of registration and commercialization of proxalutamide in the Collaboration Regions.

Kintor Pharmaceutical will be eligible to receive upfront payment and milestone payments up to RMB560 million.

Kintor Pharmaceutical will also be eligible to receive royalty payments that are not less than 50% of the total operating profit in the Collaboration Regions, based on a tiered structure per the amount of net sales as agreed by both companies.

In 2021, Kintor Pharmaceutical received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) to conduct phase III clinical trials with proxalutamide in patients with COVID-19.

“The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to infect patients and devastate communities. Kintor hopes to accelerate emergency use authorizations for proxalutamide in developing countries severely affected by the pandemic to improve the lives of patients infected with COVID-19,” Dr. Tong Youzhi, the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Kintor Pharmaceutical, commented.

As scientists around the world are working to develop treatments for Covid-19, Merck Pharmaceuticals and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced that their investigational oral therapeutic for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19, molnupiravir, has showed promising results as part of their phase 2/3 trial.

“We continue to make progress in the clinical development of our antiviral candidate molnupiravir. Data from the dose-finding portion of these studies are consistent with the mechanism of action and provide meaningful evidence for the antiviral potential of the 800 mg dose,” Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development and chief medical officer at Merck Research Laboratories said.