Japan's Fujifilm grants Chinese drugmaker license on anti-influenza drug

Japan's multinational healthcare company Fujifilm Corporation announced Wednesday that it had signed a patent license agreement on an effective ingredient of its anti-influenza drug with a Chinese pharmaceutical company.

"Under this agreement, Fujifilm grants Hisun Pharmaceutical a license to use its Favipiravir-related patents in China to develop, manufacture and market an anti-influenza drug in China," said the leading global healthcare company based in Tokyo.

"Fujifilm will receive a lump-sum payment and loyalties once such a influenza drug is successfully introduced to the market."

Favipiravir is an effective ingredient of Fujifilm's anti-influenza drug "Avigan Tablet 200mg". Avigan Tablet, created by the Fujifilm Group company Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd., is an anti-influenza drug approved for manufacturing and marketing in Japan in March 2014.

It is the first time that Fujifilm has reached a licensing deal with a foreign company for the drug.

China's major pharmaceutical company Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. directed its attention to Avigan, which has manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan, to counter the growing concerns about a possible influenza pandemic in China. It approached Fujifilm last year to seek a patent license for the drug's effective ingredient, Favipiravir.

Hisun Pharmaceutical, established in 1956, conducts research and development, production and marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceuticals such as anti-cancer drugs and antibiotics. The company operates in over 70 countries and regions around the world.

China has had reports of humans infected with avian influenza in addition to regular seasonal influenza. The need to develop new drugs for treating influenza has come amidst mounting concerns in recent years that avian influenza viruses could mutate into a new type of virus, capable of human-to-human transmission. Such a mutation could potentially trigger a pandemic. Endit