Pharma Foods International Co. Ltd. (PFI) announced that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC) for a development candidate antibody to treat autoimmune diseases on January 26, 2021. Outlines of this agreement: PFI has been successful in producing innovative lead antibodies for drug discovery targets to treat autoimmune diseases, for which antibody production is difficult with conventional technology, by utilizing its propriety antibody production technology "ALAgene® technology".

PFI and MTPC executed a research collaboration agreement in October 2018, with the aim of obtaining therapeutic antibody for treatment of the autoimmune diseases. This collaborative research successfully identified a development candidate antibody by improving the lead antibodies utilizing MTPC's specific technology for enhancing antibody affinity, followed by evaluation with various animal studies. Based on this result, PFI and MTPC have decided to conclude the worldwide exclusive licensing agreement to forward the antibody drug to further development stage.

With the conclusion of this agreement, PFI has granted MTPC the rights to exclusively manufacture, develop and sell the development candidate antibody worldwide. Under the terms of this licensing agreement, PFI will receive an upfront payment of ¥320 million, as well as development milestone payments according to development stage from MTPC. PFI will also receive royalty on net sales worldwide in addition to milestone payment on the sales achievement from MTPC.