HS-20110

Money continues to flow from drugmakers in the US and Europe into the coffers of Chinese firms, with Gilead Sciences and Roche becoming the latest to tap into sino-derived assets in the oncology space.  Under the first deal, Roche will pay $80 million upfront for global rights — excluding China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan — to Hansoh Pharmaceutical's CDH17-targeting antibody-drug conjugate HS-20110. The agreement, announced Friday, means Hansoh is eligible for up to $1.45 billion in milestone payments, as well as tiered sales royalties. HS-20110, which consists of a humanised anti-CDH17 monoclonal antibody covalently conjugated to a clinically-validated topoisomerase inhibitor payload, is currently being studied in a Phase I trial in China and the US. Eliza Sun, executive director at Hansoh, noted that HS-20110 has shown "promising" early clinical activity in solid tumours including colorectal cancer. "Partnering with Roche enables HS-20110 to move faster toward potential approval and patient access." Gilead's in vivo deal Meanwhile, Gilead's Kite Pharma unit agreed to pay $120 million upfront to Pregene Biopharmaceutical as part of a global licensing and cooperation deal focused on next-generation in vivo therapies. In addition, the Chinese firm stands to receive further milestones of up to $1.52 billion, as well as sales royalties. Although details in the announcement were scarce, Pregene co-founder and chief scientific officer Zhang Jishuai said the companies aim to "overcome technical barriers, accelerate proof-of-concept studies, and bring transformative medicines to patients faster, especially in oncology, autoimmune diseases and other areas where innovation is urgently needed." The two transactions follow hot on the heels of US drugmaker Dianthus Therapeutics agreeing to pay $30 million upfront to Nanjing Leads Biolabs for ex-China rights to the autoimmune disease candidate DNTH212. The total value of the deal is up to $1 billion, as well as tiered mid-single digit to low double-digit sales royalties. Despite trade tensions between the US and China, deals between companies based in the two countries have been on the rise this year. In a recent interview, Christiana Bardon, managing director at MPM Capital, told FirstWord that the accelerating deal pace is partly because "there's a lot more assets that are available from China, so there's just a ton of opportunities." For more on that conversation, see ViewPoints: Investor confidence builds around Chinese assets, with caveats.