South Korea-based Yuhan Corporation has signed an in-license agreement with J INTS BIO for a Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI) targeting HER2, 'JIN-A04'. The total contract size is $325 million, and it includes an upfront payment of $1.9 million and milestone payments according to future development, permits, and sales.

JIN-A04 is an oral TKI targeting non-small cell lung cancer carrying HER2 mutations, and there is currently no approved oral drug approved to date. Preclinical data of JIN-A04 was recently presented at the 2023 edition of the American Cancer Research Association (AACR) annual meeting in April at Orlando, USA showing strong efficacy in both In-vitro and In-vivo studies.

Yuhan Corporation CEO, Wook-Je Cho said, "We have taken a step forward in the development of the 2nd and 3rd LECLAZA by securing an additional anti-cancer drug pipeline with this contract. We plan to further strengthen our anticancer drug pipeline in the future."

Anna Jo, CEO of J INTS BIO, said, "JIN-A04 is expected to be a hope for NSCLC patients with 'HER2 Exon20 insertion' mutations." And it can become the most promising Best-in-Class TKI therapy in this field."

Meanwhile, Yuhan invested 1.5 million dollars in J INTS BIO in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and holds a 14.8% stake in the company.