Corbus Rises After Announcing New Strategic Collaboration With Kaken

Shares of Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc CRBP, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company that focuses on therapies to treat inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, gained more than 5 percent Thursday after the company announced a new strategic collaboration.

What Happened

Corbus said it reached an agreement with Japan-based Kaken Pharmaceutical Co. relating to the development and commercialization of Corbus' investigational drug called lenabasum for the treatment of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and dermatomyositis (DM).

As part of the agreement, Kaken receives exclusive rights to license, commercialize, and market lenabasum in Japan. In return, Kaken will pay Corbus an upfront fee of $27 million and up to $173 million in future royalty payments based on certain regulatory, development and sales milestones.

Why It's Important

Corbus CEO Yuval Cohen said Kaken is a "well-regarded" leader in autoimmune disease in Japan where approximately 28,000 patients suffer from SSc and another 9,000 suffer from DM.

"With this collaboration, we hope we can further contribute for the better lives of patients with rare autoimmune disease in Japan," Kaken President Tetsuo Onuma said.

Cohen also said the new partnership with Japan marks an "important next step" in achieving a vision of becoming a worldwide leader in treating inflammatory diseases.

Corbus traded around $6.89 per share at time of publication.

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