Kainos Medicine licenses out AIDS drug to Jiangsu Aidea Pharma

Kainos Medicine, a Korean developer of innovative medicines, said on Friday that it licensed out its AIDS treatment KM-023 to Jiangsu Aidea Pharmaceutical, a Chinese firm.

Kainos Medicine CEO and Chairman Lee Ki-sub (third from left), and Jiangsu Aidea Pharmaceutical President Heliang Fu (fourth from left) take a photo with other company members after signing the licensing agreement for KM-023. (Credit: Kainos Medicine)

According to the terms of the agreement, Kainos Medicine will receive 45 percent of KM-023's gross profit as royalties when sold in countries where KM-023’s patent is held. In other countries where they do not hold patent rights, the Korean company will receive 10 percent of sales.

The terms also specify that if the patent expires in Europe, Kainos Medicine will still receive the same 10 percent royalty for a certain period based on the approval received from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to guarantee data exclusivity.

According to market research firm Fortune Business Insights, the global AIDS drug market is expected to increase from $28.79 billion in 2020 to $45.58 billion by 2028. The AIDS drug market is mainly centered on developed markets but regions such as South Africa, South America, India, and China are known to have a high incidence of patients and a significantly lower supply.

Jiangsu Aidea plans to secure exclusive rights for the development and commercialization of KM-023 globally, excluding China and Korea, by promoting sales utilizing government procurement projects.

Although there is already a market for non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) drugs similar to KM-023 in Europe, these drugs are vulnerable to developing drug resistance and can exhibit dangerous side effects such as hepatotoxicity, said a company official. In addition, the EMA provides protection from generic developers by guaranteeing exclusive rights to clinical data for up to eight years upon approval of an innovative new drug, thus reinforcing its competitive advantage.

"Kainos Medicine and Jiangsu Aidea have been working together for nearly a decade to develop innovative AIDS treatments for the global market," said Jiangsu Aidea President Heliang Fu. "We are pleased to have reached a global technology transfer agreement to commercialize this innovative AIDS treatment and will continue to work together to bring the benefits of this drug to more people living with AIDS worldwide."

A Kainos official said KM-023 has proven safety and efficacy in China and has been granted marketing authorization, so the potential for launch in other regions of the global market is very high.

“Based on this clinical data obtained by Jiangsu Aidea, we expect to be able to quickly enter the market and receive royalties from the global market."