Chinese drugmaker CSPC Pharmaceutical Group said on Thursday that it had entered a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapies for kidney diseases in a deal worth up to $1.77 billion, extending a series of partnerships between the two companies.
Under the collaboration, option and license agreement, AstraZeneca will work with the group to discover and develop preclinical siRNA candidates against two undisclosed targets using the Shijiazhuang, Hebei province-based company’s proprietary siRNA drug discovery platform and extrahepatic targeted delivery technology, CSPC said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The platform combines artificial intelligence-enabled molecular design with automated high-throughput screening to identify siRNA candidates with extrahepatic targeting potential, according to the filing.
AstraZeneca will pay CSPC $30 million upfront. The Chinese company will also be eligible to receive up to $540 million in development milestone payments and up to $1.2 billion in sales-related milestones, in addition to tiered single-digit royalties on annual net sales of any commercialized products.
For each program, AstraZeneca will have an option to obtain exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize the candidate worldwide or outside China. CSPC will retain development, manufacturing and commercialization rights in China for one of the candidates.
The deal marks the latest collaboration between AstraZeneca and the group as the UK-based drugmaker continues to tap Chinese biotechnology innovation through licensing agreements.
The companies have announced several multibillion-dollar collaborations over the past two years, including an obesity and type 2 diabetes peptide deal worth up to $1.85 billion in January and an AI-enabled small-molecule drug discovery collaboration worth up to $5.3 billion last year. Earlier, AstraZeneca also licensed a cardiovascular drug candidate from CSPC in a deal valued at up to $1.92 billion.
The agreement also underscores growing international interest in China’s emerging RNA therapeutics sector, as multinational pharmaceutical companies increasingly seek access to innovative assets developed by Chinese biotech firms.
Tanks to chinadaily.com.cn
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