NEW YORK – UK immunodiagnostics company Oncimmune announced on Thursday an exclusive commercial partnership with R-Pharm for the use of Oncimmune's EarlyCDT Lung test in Russia and member states of the Eurasian Customs Union.
The ECU comprises the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, R-Pharm has the option to extend the use of EarlyCDT Lung into Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Georgia.
The initial term of the deal is for five years and is expected to generate at least £5 million ($6.2 million) in revenues, including milestone payments of £2.75 million.
Moscow-based R-Pharm will take the lead in product registration of EarlyCDT Lung in Russia, which has started already, and it will be responsible for all sales and marketing costs related to the commercialization of the lung cancer diagnostic test in the geographies covered by the deal. According to Oncimmune, some manufacturing for the local market will be transferred to R-Pharm in the medium term. R-Pharm will invest up to £3.5m to create a screening program using EarlyCDT Lung in Moscow and eventually across Russia.
The test measures levels of seven auto-antibodies to tumor-associated antigens, and it is designed to detect all forms of lung cancer at any stage.
Last month, London-based Oncimmune sold its US operations and the US rights to EarlyCDT Lung to Biodesix for an undisclosed amount.