YM Bio partners with TTY Biopharm on tesmilifene in Taiwan

Canada's YM BioSciences, an oncology company that identifies, develops and commercializes differentiated products for patients worldwide, says that it has partnered with TTY Biopharm of Taipei, Taiwan, to expand the development program for its lead drug, tesmilifene, into hepatic cancer.

"This agreement continues and affirms our strategy to expand tesmilifene's market potential geographically and seeks to demonstrate its benefit in additional cancer indications beyond metastatic breast, hormone-refractory prostate and gastric cancer," said David Allan, chief executive of YM, adding: "unfortunately, the incidence rate of hepatic cancer in the Taiwanese population is high. A clinical study evaluating tesmilifene in this patient population may prove very useful in Taiwan and potentially other Asian populations."

YM and TTY will form a joint development team to design a clinical trial in this initial indication and to oversee the progress of tesmilifene in additional indications. TTY will fully fund development costs and provide an undisclosed amount of upfront, milestone and royalty payments. In addition, the latter has agreed to conduct a bridging study in the local population in 2007 to support approval in Taiwan for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, should the current pivotal study being conducted by YM be successful in this indication.