Aribio Announces Full Receipt of $60 Million Upfront Option Payment from Fuxing Pharmaceutical

Additional $50 Million Upfront Payment Received

Aribio, a company developing Alzheimer's treatments, announced on July 13 that it has received a $50 million (approximately 75 billion won) option upfront payment from China’s Fuxing Pharmaceutical under a global exclusive licensing agreement for its Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate, AR1001. Including the $10 million (about 15 billion won) received previously in May, Aribio has now secured a total of $60 million (approximately 90 billion won) in option upfront payments.

Aribio company logo image. Aribio

In May, Aribio and Fuxing Pharmaceutical signed an option and license agreement for the global development and commercialization of AR1001. The total contract value is $4.7 billion (about 7 trillion won). Should Fuxing Pharmaceutical exercise its option for global rights in the future, Aribio will receive additional contract payments, regulatory and sales milestones, and sales royalties.

Aribio plans to use the secured upfront payments to complete the global phase 3 clinical trial of AR1001, analyze the data, establish a global regulatory strategy, advance manufacturing and quality control (CMC), and prepare for commercialization in earnest.

AR1001 is an oral, once-daily Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate. Unlike current Alzheimer’s disease treatments, which are mostly injectables, it is being developed as a multi-mechanism oral therapy.

Aribio recently completed dosing for the last patient in its global phase 3 trial, “POLARIS-AD.” The trial involved 1,535 early Alzheimer’s disease patients across approximately 230 clinical centers in 13 countries, including Korea, the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. The company is now undergoing final result confirmation procedures, such as data cleaning, database lock (DB Lock), and statistical analysis. It plans to release topline data this fall.

With the option upfront payment and a strategic equity investment, the collaboration between the two companies is expanding across development and commercialization. In addition to the option payment, Fuxing Pharmaceutical has also signed a strategic equity investment agreement with Aribio worth a total of $27.5 million (about 42.5 billion won).

Jaejoon Jung, CEO of Aribio, stated, “The completion of the upfront payment process as scheduled demonstrates Fuxing Pharmaceutical’s commitment to clinical development and global commercialization of AR1001.” He added, “As we approach the global phase 3 topline announcement, we will work closely with Fuxing Pharmaceutical to offer new treatment opportunities to Alzheimer’s patients around the world.” According to the company, the cumulative value of global exclusive sales right contracts for AR1001 signed by Aribio to date amounts to approximately 1 trillion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.