HilleVax Inc. and Chengdu Kanghua Biological Products Co., Ltd. announced the entry into an exclusive license agreement for rights to Kangh?s hexavalent virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate for norovirus, referred to by HilleVax as HIL-216, outside of Greater China. HIL-216 includes VLPs for six of the most common norovirus genotypes, including GI.1, GII.2, GII.3, GII.4, GII.6, and GII.17. The Investigational New Drug (IND) application for HIL-216 was cleared by the U.S. FDA in September 2023. As part of the exclusive license agreement, Kangh will supply HIL-216 for use in HilleVax?s near-term clinical trials, including a Phase 1 trial that HilleVax expects to initiate in 2024.
HilleVax will pay Kangh an upfront payment of $15 million with the potential for additional payments of up to $255.5 million upon achieving certain development and sales milestones. Kangh is also eligible to receive a single-digit tiered royalty on net sales outside of Greater China.