In the latest supply deal on the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) front, Gilead Sciences has tapped South Korea’s Yuhan to help produce its HIV meds in a deal worth $80.9 million.
The supply agreement runs through September 2025. The deal amount represents 5.8% of Yuhan’s latest yearly sales of 1.85 trillion Korean won ($1.4 billion), according to a filing.
Yuhan co-promotes several Gilead HIV drugs, including the blockbuster Biktarvy, in Korea. Yuhan’s shares jumped 15.9% on Friday following the disclosure.
The two have inked a similar deal before to provide the HIV API in Ireland back in 2018 for $45.3 million. More recently, Yuhan expanded its API CDMO business through its Yuhan Chemical subsidiary, which claims the largest API production capacity in Korea with a reactor volume of about 500,000L.
Outside of API, Gilead forked over $15 million upfront for a piece of a nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) prospect from Yuhan in 2019, with up to $770 million in potential milestone payments down the line.
Under the terms of the deal, Gilead got its hands on small molecules against “two undisclosed targets” in all countries outside of Korea, where Yuhan keeps certain commercialization rights. The partners are to jointly conduct preclinical research with Gilead responsible for commercialization in its territories.
Gilead these days is busy working on positioning its long-acting HIV med Sunlenca as a game-changing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The drugmaker’s HIV business accounted for $4.7 billion of its second-quarter sales with Biktarvy contributing $3.2 billion.