On April 22, 2021 Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM, Euronext Paris: APM) ("Aptorum Group" or "Aptorum"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, through its affiliate, reported that it has entered into a material transfer and option agreement ("Agreement") with Yale University ("Yale") to evaluate a group of preclinical stage novel immunomodulators (Press release, Aptorum, APR 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234578372]). The novel immunomodulators may potentially target autoimmune and oncology diseases, including but not limited to, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and sclerosis, as well as a variety of cancers, all subject to further preclinical development and testing. Aptorum also obtained an exclusive option to in-license the novel immunomodulators and its affiliated intellectual property rights including its patent rights and know-how, based on licensing terms pursuant to a binding term sheet incorporated into the Agreement.
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Under the arrangement, Aptorum will be responsible for assessing Yale’s originally developed novel immunomodulators against lupus, arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, neurodegenerative diseases or other oncology indications. Upon exercising its option to license, Aptorum will undertake to develop and commercialize one or more of these novel immunomodulators, as supported by Yale.
Mr. Ian Huen, Chief Executive Officer of Aptorum Group, commented: "Aptorum is delighted to partner with Yale to validate and develop its novel class of immunomodulators. Aptorum believes that these immunomodulators have the potential to advance first-in-class drug discovery and development of such drugs for potential autoimmune and oncology diseases in particular. For example, it has been widely reported that COVID-19 infections often trigger a cytokine storm in patients leading to undesirable and often fatal autoiummune reactions1 and we will also explore the potential applications of the immunomodulators for the treatment of these cytokine storms. Through this initiative, we are looking forward to strategically expanding our development footprint in the treatment of those diseases, which have other potential applications such as in oncology and infectious diseases which are already core focuses of our company."