Everest Medicines (HKG:1952) , a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Shanghai, has signed a licence agreement with Canadian biotechnology company Providence Therapeutics to make and sell its potential mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in some Asian countries including China, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

Everest stated that interim data from an early-stage human trial outside China has showed Providence's PTX-COVID19-B was safe and produced strong antibody responses.

Providence will be paid USD50m in cash upfront for PTX-COVID19-B and other COVID mRNA vaccine candidates targeting specific variants that haven't yet entered clinical trials.

It will also receive up to USD100m in profit-sharing initially and more in royalties later.

Everest's Chief Executive Kerry Blanchard told Reuters that the company expects to complete building a factory by the end of this year in eastern Zhejiang province to make the vaccine, with an annual capacity to produce "a couple of hundred millions" doses.

The timeline for setting up production lines depended on when the two companies complete the technology transfer, he added.

Apart from China, Everest has obtained rights for Providence's COVID-19 vaccine candidates for more than 10 countries including Myanmar, Thailand and Singapore, as well as Vietnam where vaccination rates are low.

Also, the two companies will collaborate on two other preventive or therapeutic products, likely in infectious disease areas, and Everest will also use Providence's mRNA platform to develop more treatments.

For these additional collaborations Providence will get USD50m upfront in cash and up to USD300m in future milestone payments in newly issued Everest stock.