AstraZeneca remains on the lookout for pipeline assets to the east, signing another deal with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group to develop investigational drugs in the kidney disease area.
The Chinese company’s announcement said the deal will include an up-front payment of $30 million by AstraZeneca. The pharma will also have to pay up to $540 million in development costs and up to $1.2 billion in sales milestone payments. CSPC will get single-digit royalties from net annual sales of products that reach the market.
The investment will enable AstraZeneca access to CSPC’s AI drug discovery platform, which includes the company’s targeted delivery platform, and its biotech’s AI-powered siRNA drug discovery engine. The partners will use these technologies to identify and develop pre-clinical molecules in two targets for renal diseases.
AstraZeneca will have the option to obtain exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and market these therapies outside of China. But CSPC maintains a 100 percent stake in one of the assets in China.
In January, AstraZeneca and CSPC previously inked a deal in which the pharma paid up $1.2 billion to the Chinese for early-stage obesity therapy SYH2082, a long-acting GLP-1/GIP dual-agonist, and three other preclinical obesity assets. The four new programmes to be developed under this agreement are also promoted by the companies.
Some of these programs could also provide AstraZeneca with up to $3.5 billion in research and development milestones and up to $13.8 billion in sales-based payments.
The pharma got back in touch with CSPC last month with an $110 million up-front payment, hoping to use the biotech’s AI engine to create oral drugs for chronic conditions. Key milestones for this partnership include $1.62 billion in R&D and $3.6 billion in sales-based successes. Like the last agreement, the firms didn’t specify the indications it will target.
It is no surprise that the drugmaker, Beyond CSPC, has been a big investor in China. The pharma had pledged to spend up to $15 billion on operations in the Asian nation just one day before announcing the deal with the January CSPC. The support will be provided until 2030 and will contribute to enhancing AstraZeneca’s cell therapy and radioconjugate development expertise, which will eventually support its drug development efforts in cancer and autoimmune diseases.
AstraZeneca has strengthened its strategic relationship with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical Group by signing a new licensing agreement valued at up to $1.77 billion. The collaboration reflects AstraZeneca’s continued investment in innovative therapies designed to address kidney disorders, an area with significant unmet medical need worldwide.
The latest agreement builds upon previous collaborations between the two companies and demonstrates AstraZeneca’s confidence in China’s growing biotechnology ecosystem. Through this partnership, the company aims to identify and develop promising drug candidates that could improve treatment options for patients suffering from chronic and progressive kidney diseases.
AstraZeneca Focuses on Expanding Its Renal Pipeline
With kidney disease affecting hundreds of millions of people globally, AstraZeneca continues to prioritize renal medicine as a major therapeutic area. The company already has a strong presence in cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases, and this latest agreement further strengthens its long-term research strategy.
