Drug discovery company Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IONS) reported on Thursday the launch of an agreement to grant the license of a second orally delivered Generation 2.5 antisense drug IONIS-JBI2-2.5Rx to Janssen Biotech Inc.

The agreement provides Ionis with USD5m license fee from Janssen pursuant to the agreement.

According to the company, IONIS-JBI2-2.5Rx is designed to locally reduce the production of an undisclosed target in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract for the treatment of a GI autoimmune disease.

Additionally, IONIS-JBI1-2.5Rx, the first collaboration target, was licensed to Janssen last year and Janssen has assumed all global development, regulatory and commercialisation responsibilities related to this drug.

Under the terms of the agreement, Jansen will assume all global development, regulatory, and commercialisation responsibilities for IONIS-JBI2-2.5Rx for GI diseases.

Concurrently, Ionis is eligible to receive nearly USD800m in development, regulatory and sales milestone payments and license fees as part of its global collaboration agreement with Janssen, Ionis will receive tiered royalties that on average are double-digits on sales from any product that is successfully commercialised.