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Innovent/Lilly Expand Collaboration to $1B, Raising Total China Deals to $3.25B This Year

publication date: Oct 12, 2015
 | 
author/source: Danni Song

Innovent Biologics of Suzhou, China and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) announced they have expanded their 10-year collaboration formed in March this year (see story), adding up to three new anti-PD-1 cancer drugs. Innovent will receive more than $1 billion in milestones in total from Lilly, plus royalties. Innovent will develop, manufacture and commercialize the drugs inside China, while Lilly will do the same outside of China.  Sales royalties and other payments would occur on certain drugs if commercialized outside China. This is the largest biotech drug development collaboration in China to date, eclipsing last month's $795M Hengrui/Incyte licensing deal (see story), and illustrates the value of innovation now coming from China.

Under the expanded agreement, the companies will collaborate to support the development and potential commercialization of three anti-PD-1 based bispecific antibodies over the next decade. The three bispecific antibodies contributed by Innovent target the protein PD-1 in human body in an effort to unblind the immune system to malignancies. 

Established in 2011, Innovent already has ten biologic drug candidates focused on oncology, inflammatory diseases and ophthalmology. Its development platform focuses on moving directly into pilot process development and to the preclinical and clinical research stage, greatly shortening the development cycle of new drugs. It currently has filed seven IND applications in China, and has one drug in clinical trials. In its short four-year history, Innovent has built a $140 million facility (underwritten by Suzhou's BioBay Park) that is compliant with US/EU/China standards and raised $100 million in venture capital earlier this year (see story).

"We believe that combination therapy in immuno-oncology has the potential to transform the way cancer is treated. We are pleased to be expanding our collaboration with Innovent to further the development of potential therapies for those fighting cancer in China and around the world," said Greg Plowman, MD, PhD, vice president of oncology research at Lilly.

"We are honored that Lilly is so quickly expanding our relationship and that Lilly is trusting Innovent to develop and manufacture their newly created bispecific antibodies for China. We are excited to be at the forefront of immuno-oncology drug development and to benefit from Lilly's deep experience in bispecific antibodies," said Michael Yu, PhD, co-founder, president and CEO of Innovent.

See our other articles on Innovent and Eli Lilly.

Disclosure: none


 

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