- 13.10.2015
Fujifilm Group company Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. (President Masuji Sugata), with assistance of Taishi Group of Companies, has signed a licensing agreement with TR-Pharm (President Tuygan Göker), Turkey-based company which specializes on developing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals, regarding Toyama Chemical’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Iguratimod.
Iguratimod is a drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis jointly developed with Eisai Co., Ltd. It was approved for manufacturing and marketing in Japan on June 29, 2012, and launched in the domestic market in September of the same year. Iguratimod is an oral drug that underwent domestic clinical trials in combination with methotrexate (MTX), the standard of care for rheumatoid arthritis, and became the first agent in Japan that demonstrated efficacy when administered in combination with MTX on rheumatoid arthritis patients who did not achieve satisfactory benefit with MTX alone. There is therefore high expectation for iguratimod as a drug that provides a new treatment option for rheumatoid arthritis and offers the choice of agents to be administered to patients according to their condition of rheumatoid arthritis.
The new licensing partner TR-Pharm is an affiliate of Russia’s pharmaceutical company R-Pharm. TR-Pharm has been established as a development and manufacturing base for Turkey, Middle East and North Africa. TR-Pharm has over 10 agents in the development pipeline, focusing on the fields of oncology, virology and inflammatory diseases for business expansion.
Under the licensing agreement, Toyama Chemical provides TR-Pharm with the exclusive rights for developing, manufacturing and marketing iguratimod for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in Turkey, Middle East and North Africa, in exchange for a lump-sum payment and royalty.