Nanoform has announced that it has established, in collaboration with A.forall Development NV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Boston-based private equity company The Riverside Company, and with IMGA Futurum Tech Fund.
This fund managed by IMGA, the largest asset management firm in Portugal, a new company, named BRAFMed Lda, to progress the clinical development and future outlicensing of Nanoencorafenib, a patient-centric nanoformulation of encorafenib.
Encorafenib, sold under the brand name Braftovi®, a registered trademark of Pfizer, is an orally administered anti-cancer medication.
Nanoform has developed a prototype nanoformulation with significantly higher drugload. If successful, the nanoformed product would offer greatly improved dosing over that of the marketed formulation, which requires a dosing regimen of up to six 75mg capsules taken daily. Clinical development and manufacturing of nanoformed drug substances for evaluation will take place at Nanoform’s development and manufacturing facility in Helsinki.
Nanoform will continue to support development of Nanoencorafenib with its nanoforming services and has granted an exclusive license to BRAFMed Ltd for Nanoform’s intellectual property covering Nanoencorafenib.
Under the agreement, BRAFMed Ltd will pay Nanoform service fees, low single million development milestones, and up-to-mid-single digit tiered %-royalty.
The BRAFMed Ltd partners’ target is to ultimately outlicense Nanoencorafenib as an attractive patient-centric lifecycle management opportunity or a value-added generic medicine.
With the completion of the total investment now signed, Nanoform’s fully diluted ownership in BRAFMed Ltd is expected to be 40-50%.
The investment is expected to be sufficient to finance the clinical development of Nanoencorafenib up and until its commercialisation.
