Dive Brief:
- Canada-based SemaThera Inc. has hooked up with Japan-based Senju Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Canada's AmorChem L.P. SemaThera will receive $2 million in financing to help move its lead drug, ST-102, into clinical trials as an intravitreal injection in diabetic macular edema (DME).
- As part of the deal, Senju picks up the option for exclusive rights to treat DME and other indications in China and Japan, where diabetes is rising. Senju will pay all clinical development costs and regulatory fees in the region, as well as making milestone payments to SemaThera, and two-digit percentage royalties.
- ST-102 is a bispecific biological trap, inhibiting both semaphorin 3A (SEMA 3A) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Its preclinical data has shown potential in early-stage diabetic macular edema.
Dive Insight:
While Japan has long been a thriving part of the global pharmaceutical industry, China has lagged behind. That's changing. Analysts at Visiongain estimate the Chinese pharmaceutical market value in 2016 as $145.4 billion, with compound annual growth rate of 12.3% between 2022 and 2027.
Breaking into that market can be a challenge for companies outside China, particularly smaller firms like SemaThera. Making a deal with an Asian company can make the process much easier. Also changes in the regulatory landscape in China are having a major impact on investment in the country.
San Diego-based biopharma Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. has taken this route by linking up with Everest Medicines Limited, funded by the Chinese healthcare fund C-Bridge Capital. Everest has gained exclusive development and commercialization rights in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea for Arena's clinical stage therapeutics ralinepag and etrasimod.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. has expanded a deal with Chinese company ApolloBio Corp., which has given ApolloBio exclusive rights to Inovio's Phase 3 HPV immunotherapy within Greater China.
Big pharma is also pinning its hopes on China. AstraZeneca plc reported 30% growth in China in the fourth quarter of 2017, the highest ever for the company, making it the fastest-growing multinational in China. Going forward, the company predicts growth in the low-twenties. The British drugmaker is launching Dizal Pharmaceutical, a stand-alone joint venture in China in collaboration with the Chinese Future Industry Investment Fund, with an aim to speed drug development in the domestic Chinese market. The collaboration will begin with three preclinical candidates from AstraZeneca's pipeline.
The growth in pharma in China needs to be supported by manufacturing. While some will be in-house expansion, for example Wuxi Biologics Inc., boosting its production capacity five-fold, other growth requires investment and collaborations from outside China.
Merck KGaA is planning an investment of $47 million over the next two years in bioprocessing in Asia, which follows $95 million invested in the life science division in Nantong, China, in 2016.
Clover BioPharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage Chinese biotech, has signed a deal with GE Healthcare to use GE's FlexFactory platform to manufacture monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. And in the first biopharmaceutical marketing authorization project in China, according to the companies, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH will manufacture BeiGene Ltd.'s PD-1 antibody tislelizumab.