ALK expands its collaboration with its Japanese partner Torii Pharmaceutical to include a tablet vaccine against grass pollen allergy.

The tablet vaccine is already marketed by ALK in Europe and North America, but will first be developed locally by Torii for approval in the Japanese market.

Subject to successful development over the coming years and approval, ALK will be eligible to receive a milestone payment of EUR 13 million, or approximately DKK 97 million.

”We are excited about the opportunity to expand our strong Japanese partnership with Torii and to further contribute to solving the widespread prevalence of allergy in Japan.”

”Considering the increasing medical need, we are convinced that there is a potential for modern and effective allergy vaccines for the treatment of grass pollen allergy in Japan,” said ALK CEO Peter Halling in a statement.

Torii already sells two tablet vaccines from ALK. These are the tablet vaccine Cedercure against allergy caused by Japanese cedar pollen and Miticure against house dust mite allergy.

As with the other tablets, ALK will also receive royalties from any future sales of the grass tablet.

Torii will be responsible for clinical development, registration, marketing and sales, while ALK will be responsible for production and delivery of the product.

According to ALK, the prevalence of pollen allergy is high in Japan, affecting approximately 40% of the population, primarily caused by pollen from Japanese cedar.

The extended agreement with Torii does not change ALK’s expectations for 2023.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Mads Oddershede)