Karo Healthcare has extended its license agreement with Stockholm-based Moberg Pharma (Nasdaq Stockholm: MOB) to cover China, adding the world's most populous market to a commercialization partnership that has expanded three times in under eight months. The agreement grants Karo Healthcare rights to sell MOB-015 (Terclara), a topical terbinafine formulation for onychomycosis, through China's cross-border e-commerce channel. Karo already operates in that channel under the Lamisil brand, marketing an athlete's foot product, giving it an established distribution infrastructure for the China entry.
Financial terms were not disclosed, consistent with prior tranches of the partnership.
Deal context
The China agreement is the third geographic expansion of a relationship that began in November 2025, when Karo obtained rights to commercialize MOB-015 across 19 European markets covering approximately 500 million people. In April 2026, the partnership was extended to Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, adding roughly 100 million potential consumers. The China license is deliberately scoped to cross-border e-commerce only; Moberg Pharma retains full rights to the general trade channel, which the company describes as significantly larger but requiring additional data generation before regulatory entry.
MOB-015 is a topical small molecule formulation of terbinafine, an established antifungal that inhibits fungal squalene epoxidase, disrupting ergosterol biosynthesis and compromising cell membrane integrity. The compound is fungicidal rather than fungistatic — a distinction that matters clinically, as most competing topical agents (ciclopirox, amorolfine, efinaconazole, tavaborole) are fungistatic. The formulation innovation is Moberg Pharma's core IP: a proprietary vehicle incorporating keratolytic agents designed to chemically soften the nail plate and drive terbinafine concentrations through to the nail bed, where dermatophyte fungi reside. Prior topical terbinafine attempts failed because the nail plate blocked meaningful drug delivery. In pivotal studies, MOB-015 achieved mycological cure in 76% of patients, a rate the company describes as comparable to oral terbinafine. The product holds regulatory approval in 13 EU countries and is marketed as Terclara in Sweden and Norway.