Bridge Biotherapeutics has agreed with Konkuk University to introduce technology concerning new candidate material to develop an oral drug for treating back-eye disorder, the company said in a public notice on stock exchange Wednesday.

The early-stage drug candidate licensed in from Konkuk University is an inhibitor of undisclosed target proteins, discovered by the research team at the university.

Under the agreement, Bridge Biotherapeutics will pay 300 million won ($254,000) as an upfront payment to the university, and the university stands to receive up to 9.7 billion won when further development and regulatory milestones are met.

“It is such a great opportunity to in-license a novel drug candidate for back-eye disease treatment, which possesses relatively high unmet medical needs,” Bridge Biotherapeutics CEO Lee Jung-kue said. “Our development team will step up efforts to develop the treatment based on a robust collaboration with the university research team.

Song Chang-seon, head of the Research and University-Industry Cooperation Foundation at Konkuk University, also said, “We are glad to execute cooperative research and make collaboration with Bridge Biotherapeutics to translate our fundamental research into innovative medicine to address unmet medical needs.”

The university’s research team will make the best effort to add the utmost value in the development process of the drug, Song said.

Bridge Biotherapeutics said it would execute further translational research works based on a concrete collaboration with the university and lead the pre-clinical and the afterward development processes, upon the worldwide exclusive license of the compound.

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