Glenmark Pharmaceuticals shares climbed more than 2% in the early trading hours on Thursday after the pharma company announced that its subsidiary, Glenmark Specialty S A (GSSA), has inked a license agreement to market cancer drugs in India and other regions.

Shares of Glenmark Pharma hit an intraday high of Rs 913.50, 2.6% higher than its previous closing price on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). At 11:45 am, the stock was trading 1.24% higher at Rs 901.25. 

In an exchange filing dated January 25, Glenmark Pharma announced that its subsidiary GSSA signed a licence agreement with Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals and 3D Medicines (Beijing) Co Ltd for KN035 (Envafolimab) in India, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Russia, CIS and Latin America. 

According to the agreement terms, Glenmark Specialty will have exclusive rights to develop, register and commercialise Envafolimab for oncology in the specified regions. At the same time, Jiangsu Alphamab will be responsible for manufacturing KN035 within and outside these regions.

The statement added that as the exclusive supplier, Jiangsu Alphamab will receive a low double-digit million US dollar amount pre-launch, triple-digit million US dollar milestone payments based on sales performance throughout the length of the agreement and a royalty fee, ranging from single to double digits depending on the level of net sales, on behalf of the licensors. 

Envafolimab is a cancer drug for adult patients that addresses a prevalent genetic signature, deficient MisMatch repair, found in about 16% of cancer patients across 13 tumor types. The National Medical Products Administration in China (Chinese NMPA) approved the drug in November 2021.