aTyr Pharma, Inc. announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., or Kyorin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyorin Holdings, Inc., for the development and commercialization of aTyr’s lead clinical candidate, ATYR1923, for interstitial lung diseases, or ILDs, in Japan. aTyr will receive an $8 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to an additional $167 million in the aggregate upon achievement of certain development, regulatory Per the terms of the agreement, Kyorin will be responsible for funding all research, development, regulatory, marketing and commercialization activities in Japan. aTyr will supply all drug product for Japan, as well as support development activities as the global development leader for ATYR1923. aTyr is developing ATYR1923 as a potential therapeutic for patients with interstitial lung diseases. ATYR1923, a fusion protein comprised of the immuno-modulatory domain of histidyl tRNA synthetase fused to the FC region of a human antibody, is a selective modulator of neuropilin-2 that downregulates the innate and adaptive immune response in inflammatory disease states. aTyr is currently enrolling a proof-of-concept Phase 1b/2a trial evaluating ATYR1923 in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis. This Phase 1b/2a study is a multi-ascending dose, placebo-controlled, first-in-patient study of ATYR1923 that has been designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, steroid sparing effect, immunogenicity and pharmacokinetics profile of multiple doses of ATYR1923.