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ZURICH and ZUG, Switzerland and STOCKHOLM, Sept. 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncopeptides AB (STO: ONCO), a biotech company focused on difficult-to-treat cancers, and Veld Pharmaceuticals GmbH (“Veld”) and Slavpharma GmbH (“Slavpharma”) today announced a collaboration to commercialize Oncopeptides’ flagship drug Pepaxti (melphalan flufenamide) in Africa and Eurasia.
Under the terms of this exclusive agreement, Veld and Slavpharma will distribute Pepaxti to patients in their respective regions for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma. The parties have agreed on a revenue split on all Pepaxti sales in the region, with Veld and Slavpharma carrying all costs through their existing structure in the region. All sales will be made on a named patient basis, meaning doctors request supply of Pepaxti directly from the manufacturer, a method of sales similar to that being employed by Oncopeptides in Greece and MENA.
“I am excited to announce this expansion of the original MENA territories, now into Africa and Eurasia, with Oncopeptides,” says WODA Chairman Patrick Jordan. “Multiple Myeloma continues to be a difficult hematological disease that requires a host of therapies to fight back against the disease. In offering Pepaxti, a drug that is fully approved in the EU, to Health Care Providers beyond MENA and Europe , they will now have an important and complementing tool in the arsenal to help treat patients in need.”
“We continue to experience an unmet medical need and a demand for our drug also outside of Europe, and our partnership with Veld and Slavpharma allow us to expand the footprint of where in the world we are able to help patients,” says Sofia Heigis, CEO of Oncopeptides.
Oncopeptides uses its proprietary Peptide Drug Candidate platform (PDC) to develop compounds that rapidly and selectively deliver cytotoxic agents into cancer cells. Pepaxti is a medicine used to treat adults with multiple myeloma (a cancer of the bone marrow) when the cancer has not responded to previous treatments (refractory). It is used in combination with dexamethasone (an anti-inflammatory medicine) in adults who have received at least three prior therapies, including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor and an anti‑CD38 antibody, and whose disease has worsened since the last treatment.
About Veld Pharma GmbH
Veld Pharma was founded to offer the African subcontinent for the opportunity to have access to medicines for rare diseases, oncology and highly specialized diseases. Veld’s combination of market access and medical affairs coupled with its steep history in Africa give it the right platform to allow African patients the chance to access therapies that would normally not be found locally.