London: American pharmaceutical company The Abbie will develop and commercialize an experimental treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from China FutureGen Biopharmaceutical The project will be operated under a licensing agreement, the companies said on Thursday.

why is it important?

AbbVie is counting on its new immunology drugs to offset a drop in sales following the entry of blockbuster arthritis drug Humira. Biosimilars In the US

The drug manufacturer bought Landos Biopharma In March, it paid up to $212 million to gain access to its lead experimental drug for treatment. Ulcerative colitis,

Too, FutureGenAccording to the companies, their drug candidate, FG-M701, is a next-generation therapy in the class of monoclonal antibody drugs, potentially requiring less frequent dosing than existing treatments for IBD.

By the numbers

FutureGen will receive an upfront payment of $150 million and additional payments of up to $1.56 billion upon achieving certain milestones. It is also eligible to receive royalties of up to low-double digits on net sales of the drug.

Context

FG-M701, which is currently in preclinical development, belongs to a promising new class of drugs known as anti-TL1A antibodies, which is of interest to major drugmakers including Merck and Roche.

Inflammatory bowel disease, a group of disorders that cause long-term inflammation in the intestines, affects an estimated 3.1 million adults in the U.S., according to government data. IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. (Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)