Avere Therapeutics announced itself to the world on Tuesday, disclosing a reverse merger with NextCure and a licensing deal with Hansoh Pharmaceutical potentially worth over $2 billion for an experimental oral peptide IL-23 receptor antagonist. All of this is backed by a $320-million private placement."The combination of the strong clinical data from Hansoh's Phase Ib psoriasis study, the capital raised through this financing from a world-class investor syndicate, and immediate access to the public markets positions us to be highly competitive in the emerging oral IL-23 market," said Andrew Cheng, CEO of Avere.Cheng will be joined at Avere by Kitty Yale as chief development officer and William White as chief financial officer. The three executives oversaw the recent sale of Akero Therapeutics to Novo Nordisk for $4.7 billion in cash upfront.Under the licensing deal with Hansoh, Avere will make upfront payments totalling $120 million for ex-China rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise AVR-001. Hansoh is also eligible for up to $2.18 billion in development and sales milestones, as well as mid-single- to low-double-digit sales royalties.AVR-001 is engineered to allow for once-weekly oral dosing, with Avere noting that data from a Phase Ib study in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis demonstrated week 4 and 8 PASI and PASI 75 responses comparable on a cross-trial basis to the first-generation once-daily oral inhibitor, despite only four weeks of dosing. The firm plans to initiate a Phase IIb study in early 2027 — with an expected readout in the first half of 2028 — while a similar Chinese trial conducted by Hansoh is also expected to read out in 2027.Phase III plannedAvere said that the private placement, led by Fairmount and Hansoh, with participation from other investors including Venrock Healthcare Capital, General Atlantic, Janus Henderson Investors and Wedbush Healthcare Partners, will fully fund operations through the readout of the mid-stage psoriasis study, as well as the commencement of a Phase III trial and another Phase IIb study in ulcerative colitis.The all-stock transaction with NextCure, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close in the second half with the combined entity set to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "AVRX."As part of the deal, NextCure stockholders are eligible to receive a contingent value right entitling them to 90% of net proceeds from any future license, divestiture or other monetisation of its pipeline assets for a period of two years following the closing of the transaction. NextCure's pipeline includes two antibody-drug conjugates: SIM0505, which targets CDH6 and is being developed with Simcere Zaiming Pharmaceutical, and LNCB74, which binds to B7-H4 and falls under a collaboration with LigaChem Biosciences. It also has a number of Phase I assets available for partnering, including therapies targeting LAIR-2 and LAIR-1."We are pleased to announce this transaction with Avere, which represents a compelling opportunity for NextCure's stockholders to participate in the development of once-weekly AVR-001 and its significant therapeutic and commercial potential," remarked Michael Richman, CEO of NextCure.