Daewoong Pharmaceutical Ltd. has out-licensed greater China rights for its idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) candidate, bersiporocin (DWN-2088), to CS Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in a deal worth up to $336 million. Bersiporocin is a prolyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitor being developed by Daewoong for IPF and potentially other fibrotic indications.
China’s NMPA granted conditional approvals to two COVID-19 drugs under a special examination and approval procedure aimed at addressing urgent needs. The approvals are both for oral small-molecule drugs for adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections. One of the approved drugs is Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd.’s Xiannuoxin (simnotrelvir/ritonavir). The other is Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s VV-116 (deuremidevir hydrobromide).
China’s National Medical Products Administration is grappling with how to regulate drugs that are sold online as it issued new provisions under the country’s Drug Administration Law that allows prescription drugs to be sold online for the first time.
Citing efforts to “encourage innovation,” China’s National Healthcare Security Administration included 111 new drugs in its National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). The adjustment, shared Jan. 18, 2023, also removed three drugs, leaving the latest NRDL with a total of 2,967 drugs. Most of the newly added drugs are recently approved drugs, with many making it to the market in the last five years. Twenty-three were approved in 2022.
Chinese firm Hutchmed Ltd. has out licensed its targeted colorectal cancer drug fruquintinib to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. as it eyes growth opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Japan in a deal totaling up to $1.13 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Tokyo, Japan-based Takeda will gain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize the drug in all indications and territories outside of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Just in time for the Chinese New Year, Mabwell Bioscience Co. Ltd. announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Mabwell Therapeutics Ltd., closed a licensing deal with Disc Medicine Inc. worth up to $412 million.
Proposed mergers with Chinese companies will likely be subject to increased scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) as evidenced by the temporary hold placed on the merger between F-star Therapeutics Ltd. and Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd.’s Invox Pharma Ltd. that was announced in June 2022.
China's National Healthcare Security Administration will not be adding Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid to its list of medicines covered by basic medical insurance schemes in the country, due to its high prices.
China Resources Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (CR Biopharm) raised ¥600 million (US$89 million) in a series B round led by China Structural Reform Fund Co. Ltd.
CAR T specialist Carsgen Therapeutics Holdings Ltd. out-licensed commercial rights for its B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) CAR T therapy, CT-053, in mainland China to Huadong Medicine Co Ltd. in a deal worth up to $152 million.
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