Under the terms of the agreement, Kaken will grant Johnson & Johnson an exclusive license for the worldwide development, manufacturing and commercialisation of STAT6 programme including KP-723, an oral STAT6 inhibitor in preclinical development. Kaken will advance KP-723 to the completion of Phase I clinical trials, after which Johnson & Johnson will conduct the worldwide clinical development and commercialisation. Kaken will retain the commercialisation rights in Japan, while Johnson & Johnson will have an option to enter into a co-promotion agreement with Kaken.

Kaken will receive an upfront payment of $30 million from Johnson & Johnson. Kaken will be eligible for success-based payments of up to $1,217.5 million based on development progress and sales milestones, as well as single to lower double-digit percent royalties on sales worldwide.

Kaken has been conducting in-house drug discovery research on STAT6 inhibitors as a next- generation oral treatment for inflammatory diseases and has been working on the global development of development candidate compounds. With the execution of the license agreement with Johnson & Johnson, Kaken will further accelerate the global development of STAT6 inhibitors and contribute to improving the quality of life of patients living with inflammatory disease by delivering potential new therapeutic agents to as many patients as possible and as soon as possible.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are both signaling proteins and transcription factors that play a role in cell growth, differentiation and function. A drug targeting STAT6 offers the potential for a novel first-in-class targeted oral medication for the treatment of patients with Type 2 inflammatory diseases.