Everest Medicines (HKEX: 01952) has secured exclusive rights to develop and commercialize LNZ100, a once-daily aceclidine eye drop for presbyopia, across Greater China in a deal announced June 8, 2026 with Corxel Pharmaceuticals Hong Kong Limited, a subsidiary of privately held Corxel Pharmaceuticals Limited. The transaction positions Everest to pursue regulatory approval for an asset that received US FDA clearance under the brand name VIZZ in July 2025 and was commercially launched in the US in October of that year. A New Drug Application for LNZ100 was submitted to China's National Medical Products Administration in September 2025, with approval targeted for Q1 2027.
Under the terms of the agreement, Everest will pay an undisclosed upfront amount to Corxel, plus regulatory and sales milestone payments and tiered royalties based on future annual net sales in Greater China, covering mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Specific financial terms were not disclosed, consistent with the deal falling below the 5% reporting threshold under Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing rules. Corxel (previously known as Jixing Pharmaceutical) originally acquired the Greater China rights from LENZ Therapeutics (Nasdaq: LENZ), the San Diego-area company that developed LNZ100, in April 2022. LENZ has separately disclosed that it is eligible to receive up to USD 85 million in remaining regulatory and sales milestones, plus tiered mid-single-digit to low-double-digit royalties on net sales, flowing through from this arrangement.
LNZ100 is formulated with aceclidine, a small molecule muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist. Aceclidine causes miosis — constriction of the pupil — creating a pinhole effect that improves the eye's depth of field and allows presbyopic patients to focus at near distances without corrective lenses. According to the companies' press materials, aceclidine's mechanism is described as pupil-selective: it activates the iris sphincter muscle to reduce pupil diameter below two millimeters without overstimulating the ciliary muscles, which in other miotics can cause a myopic shift that impairs distance vision. This is presented as a key differentiator from pilocarpine-based therapies, including AbbVie's VUITY (pilocarpine 1.25%), which was the first pharmacological presbyopia treatment approved by the US FDA in 2021.