Chong Kun Dang announced on the 22nd that it will receive a milestone payment of $5 million (69 million won) for a rare disease drug candidate exported to Switzerland's Novartis. This is the first milestone received from a global large pharmaceutical company (big pharma) since its establishment.
Earlier, Chong Kun Dang exported a cardiovascular disease drug candidate, 'CKD-510', to Novartis in November 2023 for $1.305 billion (1.73 trillion won). CKD-510 is a small molecule compound and histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitor utilizing a highly selective non-hydroxamic acid (NHA) platform technology. Its efficacy against cardiovascular diseases and several HDAC6-related diseases has been confirmed in preclinical studies, and it has been shown to be safe and tolerable in Phase 1 clinical trials conducted in Europe and the United States.
Chong Kun Dang has been developing CKD-510 as a candidate for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) since 2014. CMT is a genetic disorder that causes muscle atrophy in the hands and feet due to gene mutations, making daily activities difficult.
With the contract signed with Novartis, the clinical phases 2 and 3, as well as commercialization for CKD-510, will be handled by Novartis. This milestone is a result of Novartis submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the Phase 2 clinical trial of CKD-510 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).