Apthera, Inc has entered into a commercial license agreement with Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd for use of Apthera's NeuVax, a peptide-based cancer immunotherapy product.

Under the terms of the agreement, Kwangdong will receive a license to sell NeuVax in South Korea for the treatment of early-stage breast cancer. Apthera will receive milestone payments as well as a royalty on commercial sales. Kwang Dong has also made an equity investment in Apthera and will invest in a future round of financing.

"We're pleased to be working with Kwang Dong and believe they will be a very strong marketing partner for NeuVax in their territory," said Alton C Morgan, president and CEO of Apthera.

Apthera is a privately held, Arizona-based biotechnology company developing a pipeline of peptide-based immunotherapies for cancers that express HER2/neu, a well-validated and established oncology target.

Kwang Dong is one of the major pharmaceutical companies in Korea and is highly experienced in introducing and developing late-stage drugs for the Korean market.