- Everest Medicines and Corxel Bio have entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize LNZ100 (1.44% aceclidine, trade name VIZZ in the U.S.) in Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).
- LNZ100 is a once-daily eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia, with rapid onset and long-lasting efficacy. It is expected to be approved in the first quarter of 2027, potentially filling a treatment gap in China and becoming a potential best-in-class non-invasive treatment for presbyopia.
- This transaction will further enrich the company’s innovative product portfolio, strengthen its presence in the ophthalmology field, and enhance strategic synergies.
ShanghaiJune 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, the “Company”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative drug R&D, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization, today announced that it has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Corxel Bio Co., Ltd. (“Corxel Bio”) to acquire the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize LNZ100 (1.44% aceclidine, trade name VIZZ in the U.S.) in Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). Under the agreement, Everest Medicines will pay Corxel Bio an upfront payment and development milestone payments. As part of this agreement, Everest Medicines will acquire the rights, interests, claims, duties, obligations, and liabilities under the license agreement and related ancillary agreements entered into by Corxel Bio in April 2022. This transaction will further enrich the company’s innovative product portfolio, strengthen its presence in the ophthalmology field, and enhance strategic synergies.
LNZ100 is a once-daily eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia. Its main ingredient, aceclidine, is a small molecule muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) agonist that causes pupil constriction, thereby producing a pinhole effect that improves near vision. Studies have shown that aceclidine’s mechanism of action is highly favorable. Based on its unique, highly selective pupil-constricting mechanism, it can produce the desired miotic effect while avoiding myopic shift, thus having the potential to benefit the broadest patient population. LNZ100 was approved in the U.S. in July 2025 and commercially launched in October of the same year; in China, LNZ100 submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) in September 2025, with an expected approval in the first quarter of 2027, potentially filling a treatment gap in China and becoming a potential best-in-class non-invasive treatment for presbyopia.
Wu Yifang, Chairman of the Board of Everest Medicines, said: “The acquisition of LNZ100 is an important step in our continued strategic expansion in the ophthalmology field. LNZ100, as an innovative product with differentiated advantages and broad market potential, has clear clinical value and application potential in the treatment of presbyopia. As demographics change, the presbyopia patient population continues to grow, and there remains a significant unmet need for non-invasive treatments. LNZ100 has the potential to offer a new treatment option for presbyopia patients and further enrich our innovative ophthalmology treatment portfolio. LNZ100 has already been approved and launched in the U.S., and we are currently accelerating the NDA review process in China. Going forward, we will expedite the development and launch of LNZ100 to bring this innovative therapy to more presbyopia patients as soon as possible.”
Mou Yanping, Executive Director and CEO of Corxel Bio, said: “We believe that Everest Medicines, with its outstanding commercialization capabilities, will accelerate the market accessibility of LNZ100, benefiting more presbyopia patients in China.
Following this transaction, Corxel Bio’s product pipeline will be entirely focused on cardiovascular and metabolic disease treatments. The funds from this transaction will help Corxel Bio accelerate the global clinical development of its innovative pipeline.”
Presbyopia, commonly known as “aging eyes,” is a physiological condition where the ability to see near objects gradually diminishes with age. This occurs because the eye’s lens gradually hardens and loses elasticity, reducing its accommodative ability and preventing the image of near objects from focusing on the retina, leading to decreased near vision. Presbyopia is a common age-related physiological change. Studies show that the average age of onset for presbyopia in the Chinese population is around 38, and by age 52, the incidence approaches 100%. Currently, treatment options for presbyopia are very limited. Wearing glasses requires frequent removal and replacement, causing inconvenience in work and daily life. Surgery, as an invasive and irreversible procedure, has limited acceptance. There is a significant unmet medical need for non-invasive, safe, effective, and reversible pharmacological treatments for presbyopia.
The acceptance of the NDA for LNZ100 by China’s NMPA is based on data from a Phase III clinical study conducted in China. This study was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial, consisting of a 4-week efficacy study and a total of 6-month safety study. It enrolled 300 subjects and aimed to observe the improvement in near vision in the Chinese presbyopic population and confirm its efficacy and safety.
Study results showed that LNZ100 met its primary endpoint and key secondary endpoints, with a significant improvement of three lines or more in best-corrected distance visual acuity for near vision (BCDVA) while maintaining best distance visual acuity (i.e., no more than a 5-letter decrease in vision). The results also showed (all p-values less than 0.0001):
- Rapid Onset: 84% and 69% of subjects achieved a two-line and three-line or greater improvement in near vision, respectively, within 30 minutes of dosing.
- At 3 hours post-dose: 88% and 74% of subjects achieved a two-line and three-line or greater improvement in near vision, respectively, while maintaining best distance visual acuity (i.e., no more than a 5-letter decrease).
- Long-lasting Efficacy: 61% and 30% of subjects maintained a two-line and three-line or greater improvement in near vision, respectively, at 10 hours post-dose.
- LNZ100 was well-tolerated, with no treatment-related serious adverse events reported in the study.
About LNZ100
LNZ100 was developed by LENZ Therapeutics (Nasdaq: LENZ) and received U.S. FDA approval in July 2025, marketed under the trade name VIZZ. Corxel Bio obtained exclusive rights for development and commercialization in Greater China in April 2022.
LNZ100’s formulation contains a miotic agent, aceclidine, designed to achieve an optimal pupil diameter without affecting distance vision, a major limitation of other miotics. Miotics are compounds that cause pupil constriction or miosis, creating a pinhole effect that allows light from near objects to focus better on the retina. Studies indicate that a pupil diameter of less than two millimeters (2 mm) is optimal for treating presbyopia, leading to clinically meaningful improvements in near vision.
Unlike other miotics such as pilocarpine and carbachol, aceclidine’s mechanism of action is pupil-selective. This means it can activate the iris sphincter muscle to constrict the pupil to less than 2 mm in diameter without overstimulating the ciliary muscle, which could cause myopic shift and impair distance vision. Therefore, aceclidine does not require any residual accommodation to improve near vision, thereby expanding its benefits to older presbyopic patients whose lenses have lost accommodative ability. Consequently, we anticipate that, as confirmed by clinical studies to date, users ranging in age from their 40s to 70s, and with a wide range of refractive errors, can benefit from the treatment.
About Everest Medicines
Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative drug R&D, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization, dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs in global markets. Everest Medicines’ management team has deep expertise and extensive experience at leading pharmaceutical companies in China and globally. The company has a commercial-scale global manufacturing base in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province, built in strict compliance with the GMP requirements of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The company focuses on therapeutic areas including autoimmune diseases, ophthalmology, acute and critical care, and CKM (cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic) diseases. It has built a commercialization platform integrating a full-channel commercial system and drug lifecycle commercialization capabilities. Based on its wholly-owned global rights mRNA platform, the company continues to advance existing pipelines such as mRNA in vivo CAR-T and mRNA tumor vaccines. At the same time, through in-licensing and ecosystem incubation of potential platforms, it expands R&D capabilities while strengthening its global presence and accelerating international development. For more information, please visit the company’s website: www.everestmedicines.com.
About Corxel Bio
Corxel Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapies for patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases worldwide. The company has extensive experience and a strong track record in identifying, in-licensing, and developing high-quality clinical candidates targeting validated targets with clear mechanisms of action (MoA). Corxel Bio’s diversified clinical-stage product pipeline has the potential to redefine treatment standards and address key limitations of current therapies for various cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The company is developing a curated portfolio of small molecule compounds covering the cardiovascular and metabolic disease area. Core products include CX11, an oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist in clinical development for the treatment of obesity, overweight, and type 2 diabetes; JX10, a novel thrombolytic agent with anti-inflammatory properties for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients; and CX12, an oral small molecule amylin receptor agonist in preclinical development. Corxel Bio also has other small molecule programs targeting validated obesity targets under development.
For more information, please visit www.corxelbio.com and the “Corxel Bio” WeChat public account.
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