Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) (STO:SOBI), a biopharmaceutical company that provides therapies for rare diseases, has entered into a collaboration with US-based Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq:APLS), the two companies announced on Tuesday.

Through this collaboration, Sobi and Apellis aim to accelerate the advancement of systemic pegcetacoplan, a targeted C3 therapy, for the treatment of multiple rare diseases with high unmet need that impact more than 275,000 patients around the world.

Sobi will receive global co-development and exclusive ex-US commercialisation rights for systemic pegcetacoplan, while Apellis will retain US commercialisation rights for systemic pegcetacoplan and worldwide commercial rights for ophthalmological pegcetacoplan, which is being evaluated by Apellis in two fully enrolled phase 3 studies in geographic atrophy (GA).

Pegcetacoplan targets excessive activation of C3 in the complement cascade, part of the body's immune system, which can lead to the onset and progression of many serious diseases.

Apellis and Sobi said that they plan to jointly advance the clinical development of systemic pegcetacoplan in five parallel registrational programmes across haematology, nephrology and neurology.