In 2020, the licensing cooperation between Chinese and foreign pharmaceutical companies is surging

Text | Baiziwan Wu Yanzu

In the past six years, under drastic policy reforms, China's pharmaceutical and healthcare industry has flourished.

In 2020, despite the raging global COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, multinational pharmaceutical groups such as Roche, Bayer, AbbVie and Pfizer have shown unprecedented momentum in their transactions with Chinese pharmaceutical companies.

Figure 1.

Image source: ChinaBio Consulting, Zhongkang Industrial Capital Research Center

Why cross-border licensing cooperation is growing rapidly

Driven by the strategic goal of "Made in China 2025", China's pharmaceutical and healthcare industry has deepened reforms and actively encouraged and promoted innovation.

Negotiations on the gradually normalized national medical insurance drug catalogue will promptly include more innovative drugs into medical insurance, and promote the rapid growth of innovative drug sales through "price-for-quantity".

Cross-border licensing cooperation case

Multinational pharmaceutical groups originally valued the sales and production capabilities of local companies.

Eli Lilly & Junshi Bio

In May 2020, Eli Lilly and Junshi Biotechnology reached a US$255 million deal to jointly develop a new crown virus composed of Eli Lilly’s JS016 (LY-CoV016) and Eli Lilly’s LY-CoV555 Combination therapy with antibody.

Pfizer & CStone Pharmaceuticals

In October 2020, Pfizer subscribed for the newly issued shares of CStone Pharmaceuticals with a total price of approximately US$200 million, accounting for 9.

In October 2020, the FDA successively granted orphan drug designation for sugarizumab for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma, and monotherapy for adult relapsed or refractory extranodal natural killer cell/T-cell lymphoma (R/R ENKTL) Of breakthrough therapy.

Eli Lilly & Cinda Bio

In August 2020, Cinda Biotech and its "old friend" Eli Lilly reached a cooperation for the fourth time, granting Eli Lilly Sindilimab (PD-1 mAb) an exclusive license outside of China.

In August 2020, Innovent and Eli Lilly orally announced the results of the interim analysis of the phase III clinical trial ORIENT-11 at the 21st World Lung Cancer Congress.

AbbVie & Celestial Creatures

In September 2020, Tianjing Bio and AbbVie announced the establishment of an extensive global strategic partnership for the development and commercialization of the CD47 monoclonal antibody lemzoparlimab (TJC4).

Lemzoparlimab is a highly differentiated CD47 monoclonal antibody independently developed by Tianjing Biological.

The hidden worries of cross-border licensing cooperation

In 2020, although the cross-border licensing cooperation between Chinese and foreign pharmaceutical companies has reached a new high, there are hidden concerns behind it.

In addition, U.

In June 1998, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the former Ministry of Health jointly formulated the "Interim Measures for the Management of Human Genetic Resources" and jointly established the China Human Genetic Resources Management Office.

Conclusion

In 2020, the substantial increase in the number of cross-border licensing cooperation agreements for Chinese pharmaceutical companies shows that on the one hand, innovation capabilities have been recognized by foreign pharmaceutical companies from mature pharmaceutical markets, and on the other hand, it reflects the rapid momentum of innovation and transformation in China's pharmaceutical industry.
In today's globalization, China's pharmaceutical industry is deeply integrated into the domestic and international dual cycle through "bringing in" and "going out", and it is bound to achieve rapid development and benefit the people of the world.