King-Friend subsidiary advances Xentria collaboration with milestone payment

Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical (SSE: 603707) announced that its subsidiary has made a $15 million milestone payment to Xentria on March 19th, related to their licensing, development, and commercialization agreement for XTMAB. This follows an initial payment of $5 million made on March 5th, bringing the total payments to $25 million to date. XTMAB, a TNFα inhibitor, is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials and has received FDA Orphan Drug Designation. The company noted that clinical trials for XTMAB are still ongoing. The company cautioned that successful drug approval is still years away, so milestones payments may not be recovered.