Celltrion signs deal with US Rani Therapeutics for joint R&D of antibody drug

Celltrion biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Incheon, South Korea, recently signed a deal with San Jose, California-based biotherapeutics company. They have teamed up to jointly carry out research and development of an oral antibody medicine.

Celltrion and Rani Therapeutics named their project RT-111 and they will work together to create the said drug with ustekinumab which is an autoimmune ingredient. As per Pulse News, the medicine is for oral treatment and mentioned that ustekinumab is being sold under the name of Stelara by Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

This is normally used for treating ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. For this project, the companies will use it to develop an antibody medicine.

The US-based biotherapeutics firm has the technology to turn intravenous and subcutaneous injection-type proteins and antibody therapies into oral medicines. And under the agreement, Celltrion will be supplying its biosimilar CT-P43 referencing Stelara to Rani Therapeutic‘s clinical and non-clinical tests for RT-111.

The deal also states that the latter has a preferential right to develop and bring medicine to the global market. It was noted that ustekinumab has already been approved in the United States so it can be freely used as an ingredient in RT-111.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Celltrion, a leader in biosimilars and biologics manufacturing, on RT-111,” Rani Therapeutics’ chief executive officer, Talat Imran, said in a press release. “This agreement is a validation of our RaniPill oral drug delivery technology, which has already performed well in two separate Phase 1 trial of RT-101 and RT-102, respectively.”

The CEO added, “We value Celltrion as the exclusive provider of ustekinumab biosimilar for our RT-111 program and look forward to sharing the results of our study in due course, and potentially broadening our partnership with Celltrion.”

Celltrion’s head of medical science unit, Kim Sung Hyun, also commented on its new partnership deal with Rani by saying, “Celltrion strives to address unmet needs of patients and partnering with Rani offers the opportunity to replace painful injections with a pill.”