Tay Therapeutics Announces Licensing to VYNE Therapeutics of Oral BET Inhibitor for immuno-inflammatory and fibrotic disorders

Deal potentially worth over $50m in upfront and milestones plus mid-tier single digit royalties

DUNDEE, UK; 2^nd May, 2023 -- Tay Therapeutics, focused on developing small molecules for oncology and severe inherited diseases, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with VYNE Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: VYNE), a US-based biotech focused on developing proprietary, innovative and differentiated therapies in immuno-inflammatory diseases, for its oral BET inhibitor, TAY-B2 (VYN202).

Tay Therapeutics out-licensed its topical pan-BET inhibitor to VYNE for £16m in upfront and milestone payments in 2021. The out-licensing of both of Tay Therapeutics’ BET inhibitor projects will bring potential milestone revenues of over $65m for the first indications along with tiered royalty payments of up to 10% of net annual sales.

TAY-B2 (VYN202) has demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects in multiple validated preclinical models, leading VYNE to exercise its option to progress TAY-B2 (VYN202) into a Phase I study to treat major immuno-inflammatory conditions with high unmet need. VYNE has initiated IND enabling studies and intends to file an IND in the U.S. by year-end.

Dr. Tim Sparey, Executive Chair of Tay Therapeutics, stated “We are delighted to announce this deal with VYNE Therapeutics. It follows the licensing of TAY-B1 (now known as VYN201), a topical BET inhibitor in 2021 and completes the out-licensing of our BET inhibitor projects to a partner with the development expertise in inflammatory and fibrotic diseases where there is high unmet need.”

Dr. Andrew Woodland, CEO of Tay Therapeutics, stated “The second deal with VYNE is the culmination of 2 years of discovery and development of BET inhibitors with differentiated selectivity and safety profiles. I’m delighted for the Tay team and consider VYNE ideally placed to continue developing and maximising the value of the BET inhibitor projects. This deal further validates Tay’s business model of growing organically using revenues to support development activities with ~£6m received in upfront and milestone payments from the VYNE collaboration to date.”

David Domzalski, President and CEO of VYNE stated “We are thrilled to be licensing the oral BET project from Tay. As a result of our productive partnership, we are poised to announce clinical results for the topical BET inhibitor that we in-licensed from Tay about two years ago and look forward to developing an oral BET inhibitor molecule in immuno-inflammatory conditions that we believe, based on pre-clinical results, is potentially best-in-class.”