At the end of the year, the pharmaceutical circle once again staged a "big drama", selling assets, stopping production at the base ...

【Pharmaceutical Network Industry News】At the end of each year, the pharmaceutical circle seems to be very "lively", with layoffs, asset sales, personnel adjustments and other related news
.
This year is no exception
.
On November 15, Harbour Biologics announced that it will sell its "Biomacromolecule R&D Innovation Center Project" located in Suzhou Industrial Park to WuXi Hyde, a subsidiary of Epilogics Biologics,
for RMB 146 million.
According to the company's 2022 half-year report, the transfer project started construction in 2021, with a facility area of about 8,500 square meters and a design and production scale of up to 4,000 liters
.
The company had planned to put the plant into operation
by the end of 2022.
And now at the end of the year, it sold it backhanded
.
From the public information, since October this year, Harbour Pharma has made frequent moves, not only selling factories, but also announcing the end of its phase III clinical trial
of tenacept (HBM9036) in China because of insufficient efficacy.
Tenacept (HBM9036) is a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-1 fragment drug developed by HanAll for patients with moderate to severe dry eye, and Harbour Pharmaceuticals has exclusive development
and commercialization rights for Tenarcept in Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
The results of the first interim analysis of the phase III clinical trial of tenacercept (HBM9036) showed that the safety of tenacercept eye drops was good and the efficacy was rapid
.
In the Phase III trial in the United States and the Phase II trial in China, the total score (TCSS) of the upper cornea, central cornea and lower corneal fluorescence staining was significantly improved
.
However, due to the recommendation of the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC), based on the observed trend of insufficient efficacy, the company had to make a decision to terminate the drug in the phase III clinical trial in China and not enroll new subjects
.
In addition, Harbour Pharma also sold its late-stage clinical bartolimab (FcRn monomab) to Enbipu Pharmaceutical Co.
, Ltd.
, a subsidiary of CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, with a total transaction amount of up to 1 billion yuan
.
In exchange for cash flow, Harbour Biopharma announced on November 11 that it licensed its wholly-owned subsidiary Nona Biologics' fully human heavy-chain antibody platform HCAb to Moderna, a U.
S.
company, under which Moderna can obtain global rights to multiple target sequences developed by the platform for gene therapy development and be fully responsible for all subsequent
research and development, manufacturing and commercialization 。 Through the transaction, Nona Biologics will receive a one-time, non-refundable upfront payment of $6 million and potential milestone payments of up to approximately $500 million
based on the achievement of certain regulatory, development and sales milestones.
In addition to Harbour Pharmaceutical, CStone Pharmaceuticals has also made big moves recently, the company said, considering that the Suzhou plant is still in the trial operation stage and there is no clear large-scale production demand in the near future, in order to reduce the operating costs of the enterprise, based on full research and discussion, after careful consideration and decision of the company, the Suzhou plant has temporarily stopped trial operation
in the first half of this month.
It is reported that the Suzhou plant began trial operation at the end of 2021 and has been in operation for less than a year
.
A few days ago, some media reported that the shutdown of the factory or related to the company's lack of funds to "break the wrist" to save itself, but the company responded on November 14 that "the company's current cash reserves are enough to support the company's operation for several years, and this adjustment will more effectively save and optimize the company's operating costs
.
" 。 In the industry's view, in fact, in the context of the normalization of centralized procurement and medical insurance control fees, most pharmaceutical companies are full of challenges, especially for biotech companies, if the product itself is not competitive, far from the road to commercialization, and even insufficient cash flow, it may be difficult to sustain, in order to survive the dynamic, pharmaceutical companies stop production, sell assets, etc.
are ways to throttle, and it is expected that these actions in the industry will occur
one after another.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice
to anyone.