Israel's Oramed ($ORMP) announced final-stage talks of a $50 million deal to sell China rights for its clinical-stage oral insulin candidate to a consortium of investors. The group consists of Sinopharm Capital Management and Hefei Life Science & Technology Park Investments and Development.
Last week, Reuters reported that China's Guangxi Wuzhou Pharmaceutical bought a 10% stake in Israel's Oramed Pharma for $52 million as well as China rights to two diabetes treatments. Oramed, however, mentioned nothing on its website about such a deal, though Reuters said it built on a December 2014 investment of $5 million for a 7% stake in a private placement by Guangxi Wuzhou.
Though the Sinopharm Capital-Hefei announcement also had a tentative note about the end of the show, saying that if the deal fails to conclude after 60 days of exclusive talks, Oramed walks away with $500,000. Oramed plans a Phase IIb trial of its oral insulin product in the United States this year.
"The transaction which additionally includes 10% royalties on sales, will allow Sinopharm/Hefei to purchase a roughly 10% stake in Oramed Pharmaceuticals and acquire rights for oral insulin in China," the Oramed release said.
"In addition, Oramed's wholly owned subsidiary, Oramed Ltd, will license to Sinopharm/Hefei the exclusive rights to ORMD-0801, oral insulin capsule in China, for a total amount of ($38 million), of which ($18million) will be paid upon the signing of the license agreement and the remaining ($20 million) will be paid following the completion, and release of results, of Oramed's current Phase IIb trial in the United States."
- here's the release