AstraZeneca launches strategic research collaboration with China's CSPC Pharmaceuticals
Drugmaker revealed on Friday that it has entered a strategic research collaboration with Chinese firm CSPC Pharmaceuticals Group.
AstraZeneca stated that both it and CSPC had agreed to discover and develop pre-clinical candidates for multiple targets with the potential to treat diseases across chronic indications, including a pre-clinical small-molecule oral therapy for immunological diseases.
Research will be carried out by CSPC in Shijiazhuang City and will utilise the firm's AI-driven, dual-engine, efficient drug discovery platform.
CSPC will receive an upfront payment of $110.0m, and will also be eligible to receive up to $1.62bn in potential development milestone payments and up to $3.6bn in sales milestone payments, plus potential single-digit royalties based on annual net sales of the products.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca will have the right to exercise options for exclusive licenses to develop and commercialise worldwide candidates identified under the agreement.
AstraZeneca's Sharon Barr said: "This strategic research collaboration underscores our commitment to innovation to tackle chronic diseases which impact over two billion people globally. Forming strong collaborations allows us to leverage our complementary scientific expertise to support the rapid discovery of high-quality novel therapeutic molecules to deliver the next-generation medicines."
As of 1025 BST, AstraZeneca shares were down 0.30% at 10,996.36p.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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