Isotechnika partial award a real victory, says CEO

Shares of Isotechnika Pharma are spiking today after announcing it had been grated a partial award in its arbitration case against ILJIN Life Sciences. Shares of Isotechnika Pharma (TSXV:ISA) are spiking today after announcing it had been grated a partial award in its arbitration case against ILJIN Life Sciences.

A joint steering committee with equal membership from both companies will be established to oversee the development and commercialization of development and commercialization of voclosporin in the ILJIN territories. Isotechnika had been looking to terminate its development, distribution and licence agreement.

Isotechnika CEO Dr. Robert Forster said the partial award is a real victory.

“Although the partial award rejected the company’s interpretation of the DDL’s termination provision, the result — the DDL being declared in force — brings the company much-needed certainty in its pursuit of the development of voclosporin,” he said, adding: “We are confident that, among other things, the recent announcement that the company has received permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commence the first of two planned phase 3 kidney transplant trials for voclosporin will play a key role in obtaining the required JSC determination and, in turn, provide the company with the financial resources required to launch patient recruitment. Moreover, the company continues to search for additional funding partners for territories and voclosporin indications outside of the scope of the DDL.”

The road to reward has been a long one for shareholders of Isotechnika. In 2002 the company signed a major deal with pharmaceutical giant Roche around their drug voclosporin, which is designed to organ rejection in transplantation surgery. After a painful and drawn out process that saw shares of ISA fall from north of $5 in 2002 a share to mere pennies, Roche got out of organ transplantation altogether in 2008, returning the rights to the drug to Isotechnika. A major partner completely backing out might be the worst news possible for a junior looking for FDA approval, but as it turned out, this was far from the final chapter for ISA. The treatment started to show promise for reat uveitis, a chronic inflammation of the eye that causes vision impairment, ocular pain and loss of vision. What’s more, the treatment began showing promise in treating psoriasis.The company is now partnered with US-based Lux Biosciences.

At press time, shares of Isotechnika Pharma were up 89% to $.085.

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