Recently, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended the approval of Beyfortus, jointly developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, for use in newborns and infants to help prevent RSV lower respiratory tract infections as the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season
arrives.
If approved, Beyfortus will be the first single dose of subpassive immunological agent that can be widely used in infant populations, including healthy infants born at term or prematurely, or babies
with special health conditions.
It is understood that in fact, Sanofi and AstraZeneca have already cooperated
in drug development.
At present, in addition to Beyfortus, there are other cooperation results that have been revealed
.
Specifically, in March 2017, MedImmune, AstraZeneca's global biologics research and development unit, partnered with Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi Vaccines' division; Under the cooperation agreement, Sanofi Pasteur will pay an advance payment of 120 million euros and 495 million euros after reaching certain milestones related to development and sales, and then the two companies will share all costs and profits
equally.
In November 2020, the CDE website published that AstraZeneca's new class 1 drug, nirsevimab injection, obtained a clinically implied license to formulate an indication for the prevention of lower respiratory tract diseases
caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Nirsevimab is a monoclonal antibody that Sanofi and AstraZeneca, which targets respiratory syncytial viruses with extended half-lives, and is intended to be developed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection
.
In May 2021, AstraZeneca and Sanofi also jointly announced that their co-developed prophylactic monoclonal antibody drug Nirsevimab reached the primary endpoint of the trial in the phase III clinical trial MELODY, with results significantly reducing the number of
visits made by healthy infants to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection during the RSV epidemic season.
Analysts believe that in order to enhance the expansion of research and development pipelines and accelerate the commercialization of products, it has become very common
in the industry to develop new drugs between pharmaceutical companies in recent years.
Since 2022, a large number of domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies have announced cooperation
in products and marketing.
On September 7, for example, Zealand Pharma announced that it has signed a global licensing and development agreement with Novo Nordisk to jointly promote the commercialization of
Zegalogue injection (dasiglucagon).
On August 18, Kunpharm Group Pharmaceutical Commercial Co.
, Ltd.
and Lunan Pharmaceutical Group officially signed an in-depth strategic cooperation agreement
.
The two sides will integrate their respective superior resources and explore multi-field and multi-dimensional cooperation models
.
On June 22, Newforth Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as "Newfoss") announced a strategic partnership with Aibo Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
to jointly carry out a new drug research and development project for lipid nanogranules (LNP) delivery mRNA for the treatment of retinal diseases.
.
.
In general, a large number of enterprises are currently working together, mainly to accelerate the research and development of new drugs, develop combination therapies, and enhance competitiveness
.
Focusing on medium- and long-term development, in the context of innovative research and development is still the general trend in the industry, such cooperation is expected to become more frequent
in the future.
At the same time, more innovations will emerge at an accelerated pace
.
