BioInvent Completes First Licensing Agreement in Greater China, Advised by MSQ Ventures

M.S.Q. Ventures ("MSQ") announced on Oct 28th, 2020 that its client, BioInvent International, AB ("BioInvent") (OMXS: BINV), has successfully entered into a licensing agreement with CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("CASI") (Nasdaq: CASI) for the development and commercialization of BI-1206 in the Greater China region. BI-1206 is BioInvent's proprietary clinical stage anti-FcγRllB antibody developed to treat a variety of cancers including Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and advanced solid tumors.

According to CASI, “Under the terms of the agreement, BioInvent and CASI will develop BI-1206 in both liquid and solid cancers, with CASI responsible for commercialization in China and associated markets.” “BioInvent to receive $12 million upfront in combination of cash and equity investment”, and “eligible to receive up to $83 million in development and commercial milestone payments plus tiered royalties in the high-single to mid-double-digit range on net sales of BI-1206.”

Martin Welschof, Ph.D., CEO of BioInvent, stated, "The agreement is a further validation of BioInvent's robust discovery platform and innovative clinical program, where we welcome new opportunities to develop therapeutics for patients in additional regions, as we did here for Greater China in partnership with CASI." Dr. Welschof said, "MSQ team has been working seamlessly as our external team focused on developing and executing China strategy and diligently helped us identify, evaluate and advise on current and future strategic opportunities to continue to expand BioInvent's capability to deliver for cancer patients in the region. We appreciated MSQ's help so that we can complete this transaction smoothly and expediently in mostly virtual fashion during this challenging time."

Wei-Wu He, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of CASI, said, "Our goal at CASI is to pursue innovative drugs to complement our core pipeline and therapeutic areas. BI-1206's potential to be used in combination with leading immunotherapy agents fits very well with our strategic thinking and is what attracted us to this opportunity. We are impressed with BioInvent team's accomplishments to date and we look forward to greater success together."

"BioInvent's lead asset BI-1206 is complementary to CASI's pipeline. The two teams have a good cultural fit which is important for global clinical development and commercialization of BI-1206. Clinical development in China will accelerate BI-1206's overall global development timeline, creating significant value," said Echo Hindle-Yang, CEO of MSQ. "We congratulate Martin, Wei-Wu and the team of BioInvent and CASI on this remarkable achievement."

 
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