HitGen and Almirall Announce Achievement of Milestone in Their Strategic Collaboration

HitGen Inc. announced that the company has achieved a milestone in their strategic collaboration with Almirall to develop a novel class of drugs. The licensed compounds were identified using HitGen’s leading technology platform, which involved screening large DNA encoded libraries, containing more than 500 billion of small molecules with drug-like properties synthesized on chemically diverse scaffolds.

A number of novel small molecule leads for an undisclosed target nominated by Almirall were the subject of this achievement. Under the terms of collaborative agreement, HitGen will grant exclusive rights to Almirall for further development and commercialization, and be eligible for preclinical and clinical milestone payments from Almirall as the project progresses, in addition to upfront license fee.

“We are delighted to announce this key achievement in our strategic collaboration with Almirall, a leading medical dermatology focused global pharmaceutical company, in such a short time. The successful identification of these licensed compounds has further demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of our DEL platform to discover novel small molecules against a variety of targets. We look forward to seeing the further progress made by Almirall for their innovative research programs to address unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen.

Bhushan Hardas, M.D., MBA, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented that “We are thrilled to have achieved success at a fast pace in this strategic collaboration with HitGen’s platform to discover novel small molecules in a challenging target. Patients suffering with several unmet medical needs will be able to benefit from Almirall R&D investment”.