Oramed Pharmaceuticals said today it will generate more than $50 million from licensing and investment deals with Hefei Tianhui Incubator of Technologies (HTIT), in return for granting the Chinese company exclusive rights to market Oramed's oral insulin capsule ORMD-0801 in China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The deals include a $38 million licensing agreement, and a $12 million equity investment by HTIT in Oramed. The licensing agreement consists of a $3 million payment due upon execution of the agreement, $8 million in near-term payments, and the rest consisting of payments tied to achieving undisclosed milestones.

HTIT also agreed to pay a 10% royalty on net sales of the related commercialized products, Oramed added.

“In addition to the $50 million in milestone payments and investments, we believe the royalties on net sales throughout China will have a very significant impact on Oramed's future revenues and earnings, upon market approval of ORMD-0801 in China,” Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron said in a statement.

“China recently became the country with the largest number of diabetics in the world. Having signed these definitive license and investment agreements, our oral insulin capsule could help serve the growing population of people in China living with diabetes,” Kidron added.

Under the equity investment agreement, Oramed will issue to HTIT 1,155,469 restricted shares of Oramed's common stock at a price of about $10.39 per share.

Established in 2006, Oramed has focused on developing its flagship product ORMD-0801, as well as other oral drugs that apply the company’s Protein Oral Delivery (PODTM) technology, based on more than 30 years of research at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

For ORMD-0801, Oramed has completed separate Phase IIa clinical trials, and said today it anticipates initiating separate Phase IIb clinical trials in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, under its NDA application with the FDA.

HTIT, which is partially owned by Sinopharm Group, has insulin production facilities in Hefei, China. HTIT also focuses on industrial investment and incubation services, high-tech product R&D, technology transfer, and related consulting services.

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