Sweden's Medivir AB and Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical have signed a licensing agreement for MIV-160 (MV026048), a non-nucleoside HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor in late pre-clinical development.
Under the terms of the agreement Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical will make a payment to Medivir by transferring equity. In addition Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical will pay royalties on sales for both oral and topical use of MIV-160. Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical will have responsibility for the development of MIV-160 and commercialization in mainland China, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. Medivir retains the rights to MIV-160 for all other territories.
The companies say MIV-160 exhibits excellent properties against resistant HIV selected by use of present NNRTIs. This profile could make it an important option for both treating the growing number of HIV patients in Asia and the Pacific region and for reducing the spread of the virus.
The properties of MIV-160 are beneficial for the further development of MIV-160 into both topical and oral medications. Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical will potentially develop MIV-160 for three different products; an oral treatment regime, a vaginal microbicide and coating of condoms.
Use of condoms today remains the best way of preventing HIV mucosal transmission, however published evidence suggests that use of male latex condoms on an annual basis only by 85% prevents transmission of HIV. This calls for the use of new condoms with an extra shield and also for protective methods to be used by women. MIV-160 inactivates HIV also outside a cell and this provides a cost-effective disinfectant/chemical barrier to prevent HIV transmission. The annual consumption in China of male condoms was 2.8 billion in 2006 and with an annual growth of 15%.
Rockefeller Foundation in New York estimated the potential global market for second-generation vaginal microbicides to be around US$800 million in the developed world (7% market penetration) and US$650 million in the developing world (3% market penetration).
