Infant Bacterial Therapeutics AB (IBT) (STO:IBTB), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, announced on Tuesday the signing of the first distribution agreement for IBP-9414 with Megapharm Ltd for the Israeli market and the Palestinian Authority's territories.

The company said this agreement gives Megapharm exclusive rights to market and sell the product, if and when the product receives market approval, after the pivotal clinical phase III trial that is expected to start during the current half year.

Also, Megapharm will handle the registration, price negotiations as well as manage marketing and all of the practicalities that distribution of a pharmaceutical entails.

According to IBT, it has chosen to establish a distribution agreement, and not a license agreement with significant up-front payments, in order to obtain a larger share of future sales revenue. IBT's share will, after an initial shorter period, account for 70% of revenues.

In addition, as the Israeli health service offers advanced medical care for premature babies, IBT plans to open clinical trial centres for the pivotal phase III trial in the country. Megapharm is already participating in this work as it is essential to engage 'key opinion leaders' in the marketing of the product.

Megapharm is a private biotechnology marketing company in Israel engaged in the pharmaceutical and healthcare business.

Infant Bacterial Therapeutics AB has a vision to develop drugs influencing the infant microbiome and thereby prevent or treat rare diseases affecting infants.