AstraZeneca has formed a research partnership with China-based CSPC Pharmaceuticals Group to advance the discovery and development of new oral candidates aimed at treating diseases across multiple indications.
The agreement outlines that both companies will work on pre-clinical candidates targeting chronic diseases, including a small molecule oral therapy for immunological conditions.
CSPC will conduct the research in Shijiazhuang City, utilising its AI-driven, dual-engine drug discovery platform. This platform leverages artificial intelligence to analyse how target proteins bind with existing compound molecules, enabling targeted optimisation.
The objective is to select effective small molecules suitable for development. This partnership enhances AstraZeneca’s presence in China, following its earlier $2.5bn investment in Beijing, and reinforces its ongoing collaboration with CSPC.
Financial terms include an upfront payment of $110m to CSPC, with potential development milestone payments up to $1.62bn and sales milestone payments up to $3.6bn.
Additionally, CSPC may receive single-digit royalties based on the annual net sales of the products. AstraZeneca retains the rights to exercise options for exclusive licenses to develop and commercialise the candidates globally identified through this agreement.
AstraZeneca executive vice president and BioPharmaceuticals R&D head 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.”
In October last year, AstraZeneca partnered with CSPC to further develop CSPC’s pre-clinical small molecule candidate, YS2302018. This early-stage compound acts as a novel lipoprotein disruptor and holds the potential for providing additional benefits to patients suffering from dyslipidaemia.
