Sillajen Secures BAL0891 Patent Rights, Hits Limit Up

[Seungkwon kim, Edaily Reporter] Sillajen announced that it has acquired full patent and related rights to the anticancer drug BAL0891 from Dutch biotech firm Crossfire for 2 million Swiss francs (approximately 3.5 billion KRW). Following the announcement, the company’s stock surged 30% to hit the upper limit.

Crossfire originally developed BAL0891. Under the previous agreement, Sillajen was obligated to pay Crossfire up to 172 million Swiss francs (around 300.5 billion KRW) in development-related milestone payments.

However, the revised deal eliminates all future milestone obligations. BAL0891 is a dual-mechanism cancer drug initially developed by Crossfire and later licensed to Swiss pharmaceutical firm Basilea. Sillajen acquired the rights in 2022 after Basilea exited its oncology business. The patents for BAL0891 had been jointly held by Crossfire and Basilea. With the amended agreement, Sillajen has now obtained all patents and related rights previously held by Crossfire.

The company is currently conducting clinical trials for BAL0891 in both the U.S. and South Korea. It is also working to expand the drug’s indications from solid tumors to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). That expansion could have triggered additional milestone payments under the original deal, but the new agreement removes that financial burden.

According to the company, the contract amendment was swiftly approved by the board following a reporting process involving its largest shareholder, M2N, and its affiliates. “We’ve secured all of Crossfire’s rights at minimal cost and proactively addressed key hurdles ahead of potential license-out efforts for BAL0891,” a Sillajen official said.

Preclinical data on BAL0891 for AML is expected to be presented at a major international conference soon.