(Yicai Global) June 25 -- Chipscreen Biosciences’ stock price jumped after Japan gave the green light to sales of the Chinese drug developer’s treatment for a kind of leukemia that spreads by viral infection.

Chipscreen’s shares [SHA:688321] ended today 5.1 percent higher at CNY44 (USD6.80) each.

Chidamide is the first ever original drug developed by a Chinese company to gain approval in an overseas market, Shenzhen-based Chipscreen said in a statement yesterday. The treatment is used on relapsed and refractory Adult T-cell Leukemia.

The number of carriers of the T-cell leukemia virus in Japan is estimated at 1 million, with patient numbers increasing by about 2,000 a year. Other treatments before Chidamide have proven less effective, Chipscreen said.

Chidamide was launched in the Chinese market in 2013. It was originally used to treat T-cell lymphoma and was also used later as a therapy for breast cancer.

Chipscreen said it will receive a share of sales commission when Chidamide arrives in the Japanese market, per the agreement with its overseas partners. But it gave no further financial details.

Chipscreen was founded in 2001 by a group of medical scholars who had returned to China from the United States. The firm developed a proprietary chemical genomics-based drug discovery and early evaluation platform, and it focuses on developing drugs in five areas, including cancer and autoimmune illness.

Editor: Tom Litting