In a deal that could be worth up to $937.5 million, Biogen Inc. licensed rights to phase II-stage, brain-penetrant BTK inhibitor orelabrutinib from Innocare Pharma Ltd. for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and autoimmune diseases. It’s the first mega out-licensing deal for the Chinese firm, which will receive $125 million up front and is eligible to receive up to $812.5 million in potential development milestones and commercial payments, plus tiered royalties in the low to high teens on potential future net sales.
Cross-border startup Scineuro Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which focuses on central nervous system (CNS) diseases, inked a deal with Eli Lilly and Co. to license in the greater China rights of alpha-synuclein-targeted antibody therapies to follow the global drug development trend in this space.
HONG KONG – Irvine, Calif.-based Trigr Therapeutics Inc. has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Shanghai-based Elpiscience Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., known as Kewang in China. The two companies will develop and commercialize TR-009 in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
HONG KONG – Humanigen Inc. has executed its first licensing agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, in a deal worth up to $20 million that gives Telcon RF Pharmaceutical Inc. and KPM Tech Co. Ltd. the development and commercialization rights to lenzilumab for COVID-19 in South Korea and the Philippines.
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-based Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has linked up with Hong Kong-listed China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Ltd. (CGP) in a licensing and commercial deal worth AU$400 million (US$285 million) plus sales royalties.
HONG KONG – Chinese biotech companies, long in-licensors of innovative biopharma assets for the region, have started to reverse the flow by out-licensing domestically generated candidates to global players. The changing tide signals China’s innovation in the life sciences is bearing fruit. But the country’s efforts isn’t without complication, shadowed now by tense relations with the U.S.
Nanjing, China-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. became the second Chinese player to seek assets from G1 Therapeutics Inc., of Research Park Triangle, N.C., this year. On Tuesday, it licensed trilaciclib, an intravenous CDK4/6 inhibitor, from G1 Therapeutics in a $170 million deal for Greater China rights.
BEIJING – U.S.-Taiwan biotech Acepodia Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., and Taipei, has licensed out two of its cell therapy candidates, ACE-1702 and ACE-1655, to Chinese CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Prescient Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is poised to develop next-generation CAR T therapies after signing a deal with the University of Pennsylvania for a universal immune receptor technology platform.