Fibrosis drug maker AdAlta has secured the final piece of technology it needs to build a case for a licensing deal next year.

AdAlta (ASX:1AD) has licensed a technology called PASylation from a German company XL-protein that will extend the half-life of its fibrosis therapy, AD-114, up to 24 hours.

AD-114 is the first drug developed for AdAlta’s i-body drug delivery platform, which came from shark antibodies.

It’s a modified human protein based on a design from sharks, that gives it the stability of small molecules and the bonding affinity of large molecules.

AdAlta’s first i-body drug, the AD-114, is designed to treat fibrosis of the lung (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) — a chronic, fatal disease.

AdAlta’s (ASX:1AD) share price over the past year. Source: Investing.com

PASylation was the last piece of technology AdAlta needed to create a package they can then on-license to a partner — something chief Sam Cobb hopes will happen next year after Phase-one trials.

“We’re licensing a technology that will form part of a package that we’ll then license out,” Ms Cobb told Stockhead.

“We’re putting everything in place in order for us to do that commercial deal.

“The last piece of information we’re doing next year — a toxicology study on non-human primates. That’s the last piece of the pie before the phase-one study [in the second half of 2018].”

AD-114 could have cancer-fighting applications, but AdAlta chose to head down the fibrosis track because the field was smaller and there’s much higher possibility of getting an earlier licensing deal — at phase-one rather than phase-two clinical trials.

Ms Cobb says the average deal size is $100 million, with milestone payments of $400 million to $500 million.

That means AdAlta could be making money from its early stage technology in as little as two years.

The company has $6.7 million, enough to get them through phase-two trials if they don’t secure the much-hoped for licensing deal next year.

They plan to spend $1.8 million this quarter.

AdAalta closed up 10 per cent on Monday, at 22c.

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