Biohaven Licenses MoDE Degraders to Ono for Asia
The biopharmaceutical company will receive up to $100 million in near-term payments and about 20% royalties as Ono takes exclusive rights to BHV-1300-led IgG degraders in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and ASEAN.
Biohaven Ltd. (BHVN) agreed to license its MoDE pan-IgG degraders to Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and ASEAN member states, in what is the first regional collaboration for an extracellular protein degrader.
The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company will receive up to $100 million in near-term payments, including $80 million upfront and a further $20 million upon a milestone anticipated within a year, plus royalties of approximately twenty percent on net sales by Ono in the licensed territory.
Ono will obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize the MoDE degraders, led by BHV-1300 and including certain next-generation follow-on IgG degraders.
Vlad Coric, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Biohaven, commented, "Ono will be the ideal partner to bring this innovative immune-modulating technology to patients across Japan and key Asian markets. This is the first regional collaboration for an extracellular protein degrader, and it validates a platform that began with pioneering chemistry from the Spiegel Lab at Yale University and now spans a broad and diverse portfolio of MoDE and TRAP degraders."
BHV-1300 is a small-molecule extracellular IgG degrader designed to use hepatic clearance to remove IgG1, IgG2, and IgG4. Biohaven has already put the molecule into the clinic. In an ongoing Phase 1b study in Graves’ disease, weekly 1000 mg subcutaneous dosing produced mean reductions in pathogenic TSHR-IgG1 of greater than 80% by week 12, with free T4 normalizing at a median of 3 weeks and free T3 at a median of 5 weeks after the first dose in patients whose thyroid hormones remained elevated despite antithyroid drugs.
Biohaven initiated a pivotal Phase 3 study of BHV-1300 in Graves’ disease after those results, with the trial designed to test whether the degrader can rapidly and selectively eliminate disease-causing autoantibodies while preserving the rest of the immune system.
That Phase 3 start sits against a broader MoDE and TRAP pipeline. Biohaven has also dosed the TRAP degrader BHV-1400 in IgA nephropathy, where it achieved mean reductions in pathogenic Gd-IgA1 of greater than 60% within 48 hours and about 70% within the first month, and a pivotal IgAN study is set to initiate in the second half of 2026.
The Ono license covers the IgG MoDE degraders, not the TRAP franchise, and is limited to the named Asian markets. Biohaven retains the rest of the world and the follow-on IgG degraders outside those territories.
The $20 million milestone is tied to an achievement expected within a year. Royalties of approximately twenty percent on Ono’s net sales in the licensed territory will follow commercialization.