Trends in China's innovative drug license in

On August 4, Zai Lab announced that it has reached a cooperation with Schrödinger.
Based on its physics software platform, the two parties will cooperate in the global R&D and commercialization of innovative drugs for tumor DNA damage response mechanisms
.

In fact, this is already the fourth innovative drug development technology cooperation reached by Zai Lab in 2021
.

In March, Zai Lab signed a cooperation agreement with Almai Bio, which will use Almai’s artificial intelligence technology, big data and Intelligence DNA coding compound library platform to develop innovative drugs in the field of oncology and other diseases;

In April, Zai Lab reached a cooperation license with RubrYc to develop anti-tumor monoclonal antibodies using RubrYc's mesoscale engineering molecular platform;

In June, Zai Lab and Macrogenics once again reached a strategic cooperation.
In addition to product and equity investment, Zai Lab obtained the right to use MacroGenics multi-specific platforms DART® and TRIDENT®
.

As a successful practitioner of the license in model of a domestic innovative drug company, Zai Lab's transaction changes, especially this year's continued increase in authorization and licensing in the technical field, are worthy of analysis
.

Zai Lab was founded in 2014 by Dr.
Du Ying, who has multiple identities such as multinational pharmaceutical company work experience, BD, and investor
.

In May 2020, Zai Lab ushered in the approval of the first License in product Tumor Electric Field Therapy (Aiptun) in Mainland China
.

License in overseas requires real money.

Zai Lab's IPO made License in popular in the industry as a business model for innovative drug companies
.

The same is true on the data
.

Source: NextPharma

Especially after the Hong Kong stock market 18A and the Science and Technology Innovation Board opened the door to unprofitable biotech companies, a group of Biotech companies that were organized or incubated by the capital organization were quickly spawned.

A large number of Chinese start-up Biotech companies are seeking to make innovative drugs through license-in.
On the one hand, the cost of introducing innovative drugs from overseas has become higher and higher, and on the other hand, the homogenization of domestic innovative drugs has become more and more serious
.

What is more alarming is that Zai Lab's early license in development can also take advantage of the inefficient review of new drugs at home and abroad to achieve "time arbitrage".
Now with the improvement of the efficiency of domestic drug review, this time arbitrage can be achieved.
The opportunity for this has been lost, and many domestic companies developing license-in have become "capital arbitrage" aimed at the primary and secondary markets
.
This kind of "new drug introduction and development" with a less pure purpose can hardly be said to be completely based on the clinical needs of patients
.
A large number of innovative drugs introduced from overseas have become we too, which also prompted CDE to issue the "Clinical Value-Oriented Guidelines for Clinical Research and Development of Anti-tumor Drugs" in early July to guide the industry
.

The change of Zai Lab's license-in strategy is earlier than the release of the above-mentioned guidelines of CDE.
This is not only the industry consciousness of Zai Lab as a BD benchmarking enterprise, but also has a profound impact on the domestic innovative drug license-in model.

.

Although the introduction and authorization of technology platforms is nothing new, from the data point of view, the license in strategy of domestic innovative drugs has changed, and Zai Lab's series of actions have made this change a more obvious trend
.

As can be seen from the figure below, in 2018, there were license-in transactions for more than 70 innovative drug products in China, and only two of them were purely technical authorization cooperation
.
By 2020, there will be 18 technology licensing cooperation; as of August 2021, the number of license-in cooperation and licensing for pure technology platforms in the domestic innovative drug field has reached 13
.

Source: NextPharma

The introduction of technology is different from the introduction of products and is not a "one-off" transaction
.
Technology can be transformed into a new innovation platform for enterprises and become the source of innovative products
.
At the same time, even if domestic companies have obtained the same technology authorization, such as Cinda Bio, Pufang Bio and Meyac, although they have introduced Synaffix's ADC technology, they may not necessarily develop products for the same target
.

Perhaps, the technical license-in will become a favorable measure to avoid the clustering of innovative drugs and the duplication of targets; perhaps, it will become the source of domestic enterprises to develop FIC and BIC drugs
.

Foreign pharmaceutical companies paid more attention to advanced technology earlier than domestic companies
.
In 2018, when domestic companies had a large number of license-in products, foreign companies were accelerating the deployment of technology platforms through license-in globally, especially the total transaction amount of technology licensing cooperation in 2020 reached a new high of about 40 billion US dollars; at that time , The total transaction value of foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies for innovative drug project cooperation is US$68.
1 billion
.
If you consider that the amount of project transactions will be pushed up by several later products, it can be seen how much foreign pharmaceutical companies attach to technology
.

Source: NextPharma

In 2021, the amount of technical cooperation between foreign pharmaceutical companies is expected to usher in a new peak
.
Global TOP10 pharmaceutical companies are already the main force among the technology transferees, highlighting the importance of technology by pharmaceutical giants and benchmarking companies
.
This may be what the domestic leading innovative drug company should be
.

Source: NextPharma

In addition to Zai Lab, BeiGene, Cinda Biotech, and Pufang Biopharmaceuticals have also started technology introduction cooperation, reflecting the changes in the license-in strategy of domestic innovative drugs
.
Of course, with regard to the change of License-in from product to technology, we should also remain rational and vigilant.
Especially the identification of technical quality may be more difficult than a single specific project.
It is also necessary to prevent the license-in from changing from the internal volume of the project to The involution of technology
.