Ashlins Pharmaceuticals is paying Lee’s Pharmaceutical Holdings up to $31 million for a drug Merck walked away from four years ago.
The Hong Kong biotech signed an exclusive license and supply deal with the five-person U.S. startup, covering ex-Greater China rights to interferon alpha-2b, the active ingredient behind Merck’s Intron A. Merck discontinued Intron A in 2022 for commercial reasons, leaving rare-disease patients who’d been using it off-label without a supply chain. Neither side broke out the upfront-versus-milestone split, standard for a deal where the real payout hinges on whether Ashlins can actually get the drug approved.
What does Ashlins get for that money? Exclusive development rights everywhere except Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, a locked-in API supplier, and a pre-IND meeting with the FDA already scheduled for early August. The target indication hasn’t been disclosed.
CEO Jennifer Lin has run this exact playbook before. Her prior venture, AUG Therapeutics, bought a trio of rare disease assets from Avalo Therapeutics in 2023 for $150,000 upfront plus up to $45 million in contingent milestones. It’s the same in-license-and-de-risk structure, just a different shelved asset this time.
The financing math is the real tell. Ashlins has raised just $1.7 million to date, mostly from Mythos Ventures, and Lin is now chasing a $50 million round in October, roughly 30 times what’s currently in the bank. The FDA meeting comes first. The money comes after.
Diana Kowalski