Seelos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SEEL) and iX BioPharma have announced a license agreement pursuant to which iX Biopharma will license its lead drug candidate under development, Wafermine, and other products that incorporate S- and R- enantiomers of ketamine leveraging WafeiX tech to Seelos.
iX Biopharma to receive $9 million advance payment
A $9 million advance payment will be made to iX Biopharma, which will be paid in cash and shares. Seelos is also pay up to US$239 million in milestone payments if certain development milestones and product sales benchmarks are met by iX Biopharma. iX Biopharma will additionally receive double-digit royalties on any Licensed Product’s future net sales. All funding for future development, production, and commercialization of the Licensed Product will be by Seelos.
CEO and Chairman of iX Biopharma Eddy Lee said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Seelos Therapeutics, whose deep insights in ketamine drug development make them an ideal partner to further the development of Wafermine and the other sublingual ketamine products. Licensing our WaferiX-based pharmaceutical drugs to suitable third parties for development and commercialisation is a core strategy to unlock the value of our assets. We are therefore excited that this commercially significant agreement with Seelos is a validation of our ability to deliver on this strategy.”
Seelos to have exclusive rights for Wafermine globally
CEO and Chairman of Seelos Raj Mehra said, “The licensing of the WaferiX drug delivery platform for sublingual ketamine broadens Seelos’ ketamine franchise with formulations that we believe will be suitable for both acute and chronic dosing. This should enable us to study additional indications beyond our current focus. The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety profile that has been demonstrated to date suggests a formulation that has the potential of being prescribed with less restrictions than current formulations. Our team is excited to be able to study additional indications with this very innovative technology.”
Seelos will have exclusive global rights to Wafermine, with the exception of China (including Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), as well as worldwide rights to products combining R- and S-enantiomers of ketamine created utilizing iX Biopharma’s WaferiX technology.
