Chinese drugmakers have signed a late-year burst of out-licensing agreements with overseas partners, underlining China’s growing role as a source of novel medicines as multinational pharma groups hunt for new assets.
Jacobio Pharmaceuticals said it expected to receive an upfront payment of US$100 million from AstraZeneca, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on December 21.
The British-Swedish drugmaker was paying for exclusive rights to research, develop, register, manufacture and commercialise Jacobio’s experimental cancer therapy JAB-23E73 in markets worldwide, excluding mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
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Jacobio could also earn up to US$1.92 billion in milestone payments linked to development, regulatory and commercial targets, and would receive tiered royalties on sales.
JAB-23E73 is an oral pill designed to inhibit KRAS, a mutated protein that can fuel tumour growth, while sparing closely related “good” proteins – an approach intended to reduce side effects.
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The drug is currently in Phase I human trials in China and the United States.
Coherent Biopharma, meanwhile, had also struck a cross-border partnership, signing an exclusive licensing deal on December 22 with US-based MultiValent Biotherapies for CBP-1018, a prostate cancer candidate.