HanAll Biopharma has stepped up its legal fight with Harbour BioMed, filing a counterclaim with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to formally terminate their licensing deal for the autoimmune drug candidate batoclimab (HL161) and reclaim rights across Greater China.
The move, announced Thursday, comes less than two weeks after HanAll disclosed that Harbour had initiated arbitration to contest the deal’s termination. HanAll originally served its termination notice on Jan. 26, citing Harbour’s failure to meet key development milestones for batoclimab.
HanAll Biopharma is seeking to terminate its batoclimab licensing deal with Harbour BioMed through ICC arbitration.
In its latest filing, HanAll said it submitted a formal response to Harbour’s arbitration claim on March 18, along with a counterclaim seeking to dissolve the 2017 agreement that granted Harbour exclusive rights to develop and commercialize batoclimab in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
The Korean biotech is also asking the ICC to add Harbour BioMed’s Hong Kong entity—an original signatory to the deal—as a party to the arbitration, arguing the affiliate is still jointly liable under the contract, despite transferring operational responsibilities to a Shanghai-based unit.
The original 2017 deal, valued at up to $81 million plus royalties, was among HanAll’s most significant regional out-licensing agreements, giving Harbour rights across Greater China.
HanAll reiterated that the arbitration does not impact batoclimab’s clinical progress or regulatory plans. The company said it intends to move forward with development and commercialization activities in China “without delay,” including the ongoing marketing application for generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG).
“This is a procedural follow-up to the arbitration we disclosed on March 18,” a HanAll spokesperson said, emphasizing that the filing does not initiate a new case and is unrelated to the drug’s safety or efficacy.
Until the ICC delivers a ruling, the original licensing agreement with Harbour remains legally binding. However, HanAll has made clear it aims to recover commercial control of batoclimab in China, where it believes stalled trials have weakened the drug’s competitiveness.
The dispute centers on HanAll’s claim that Harbour failed to use “commercially reasonable efforts” to advance the drug beyond phase 2 in key indications such as thyroid eye disease and neuromyelitis optica. Harbour did complete a phase 3 trial for gMG, but HanAll maintains broader development delays are undermining the drug’s market potential.
Harbour BioMed did not return a request for comment.