South Korean pharmaceutical company Yuhan Corp. disclosed Wednesday that it has terminated its licensing partnership with China’s Luoxin Biotechnology Co. over its failure to fulfill its contractual duties.

Yuhan had licensed out its new lung cancer drug candidate YH25448 to Luoxin Biotechnology in July this year in a deal valued at around $120 million. The two firms had been carrying out further talks over the contract details.


Under the deal, Luoxin Biotechnology had agreed to jointly develop Yuhan’s lung cancer drug, carry out the drug’s clinical trials in mainland China and Hong Kong and commercialize the drug in these markets.

According to Yuhan, Luoxin failed to carry out its side of the agreement, unilaterally demanding Yuhan’s drug technology data while refusing to fulfill its contractual obligations.

The Korean drug maker said it plans to push for legal action against Luoxin to gain back its pre-clinical data on YH25448 and seek compensation for damages.

Yuhan plans to continue developing YH25448 on its own in the future. The drug has undergone GLP-toxicity studies abroad and will enter phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials in Korea from January 2017.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)