(Yicai Global) Feb. 23 -- Huadong Medicine’s shares jumped after a unit of the Chinese drugmaker signed a deal worth as much as USD640 for the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize two first-in-class drugs to treat rare diseases in the Asia-Pacific region.

Huadong Medicine [SHE: 000963] added 7.7 percent today to close at CNY36.48 (USD5.77), after earlier soaring as much as 9.1 percent.

The agreement signed with the UK unit of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals covers clinical development, registration, and commercialization of Rilonacept, an innovative drug to treat autoimmune diseases, and Mavrilimumab, another drug in clinical trials, in 24 Asian-Pacific countries and regions, Hangzhou-based Huadong Medicine said today.

Huadong Medicine will make a USD22 million down payment, milestone payments worth as much as USD640 million, and pay a certain percentage of commissions on net sales after the drugs are on the market, it added.

The US Food and Drug Administration and the European Union granted orphan drug designation to Rilonacept for the treatment of recurrent pericarditis in 2020. The FDA approved the drug for the US market last year.

China put it on a list of new foreign drugs urgently needed in clinical settings in 2018, Huadong Medicine said. Treatments added to the list go through an expedited approval process.

Mavrilimumab is also sued to treat rare cardiovascular diseases, Huadong Medicine noted, adding that Kiniksa is readying the drug’s phase II clinical trials overseas.

Besides tumors, autoimmune diseases are an area that have received the most attention and funding for research and development worldwide, the firm said. The Chinese market for autoimmune disease drugs will grow to USD24.1 billion by 2030, according to research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan.

Editor: Futura Costaglione