Eyes on Asia: AZ C-suite, Verdiva and Sciwind, Korea and China at JPMEyes on Asia: AZ C-suite, Verdiva and Sciwind, Korea and China at JPM
BioXconomy presents the Asia biopharma and healthcare dealmaking and financing news for the week ending 19 January.
AstraZeneca in China
Anglo-Swedish biopharma AstraZeneca is continuing to overhaul of its China management team, the Financial Times reported, with Mary Guan being promoted to lead oncology in China.
The rumored shift comes after the firm named Iskra Reic as its new international executive vice president (EVP) last last year, taking over from scandal-hit Leon Wang. Wang was detained by Chinese authorities in October for unknown and undisclosed reasons.
Keen-eyed followers will remember China was highlighted as a major growth area for AstraZeneca with CEO Pascal Soriot telling stakeholders at an Investors’ Day last May that innovation in China has “exploded.”
He added: “When you look at innovation from innovation culture, Europe has declined very rapidly. Most of the innovation these days takes place in the US or China. So we have to be in China to be able to connect with innovation, partner with innovation.”
AstraZeneca has an R&D center in Shanghai, and Soriot said China “has become a very fundamental part of our R&D network in many ways.”
In December 2023, AstraZeneca paid $1 billion to acquire China’s Gracell Biotechnologies, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) company with an autologous CD19 dual-targeting candidate leading its pipeline. In the same month, AstraZeneca entered a $24 million agreement for the rights to a small molecule inhibitor from Chinese biotech Usynova.
In 2023, AstraZeneca attributed 13% of its $45.8 billion of revenues to China.
Verdiva and Sciwind
Hangzhou, China-based Sciwind Biosciences has entered a therapy licensing agreement with Verdiva Bio, a newly launched entity, giving the latter the commercialization rights for several metabolic disease candidates outside of Greater China and South Korea.
Specifically, Verdiva will access lead candidate XW004 (ecnoglutide oral), a Phase II-ready once-weekly oral glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist and oral and subcutaneous Amylin Receptor Agonist preclinical candidates.
Verdiva will pay Sciwind $70 million upfront, but the total deal could be worth $2.4 billion based on milestones and royalties.
Verdiva itself rose from the managerial ashes of Aiolos Bio, an inflammatory disease-focused biotech acquired by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in January 2024. The firm launched earlier this month through a $410 million Series A funding, led by Forbion and General Atlantic, with additional participation from RA Capital Management, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and LYFE Capital.
“We created Verdiva Bio to accelerate the development of differentiated medicines that address these significant unmet medical needs,” said CEO Khurem Farooq, formerly CEO of Aiolos Bio. “Our most mature program has the potential to be a first-in-class, once-weekly oral treatment for obesity and weight loss maintenance that could dramatically improve patient access and affordability.”
Korean confidence at JPM
The JPM conference, held last week in San Francisco, California, is never short of biopharma companies announcing their intentions for 2025 and the Korean contingent was a loud voice amongst them.
Samsung Biologics, a manufacturing powerhouse with heavy investments in numerous biopharma and biotech firms, fresh from the announcement of its largest ever production contract with an undisclosed European client highlighted the opening of its Bio Campus II and launch of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) services among its 2025 strategy.
Meanwhile, Lotte Biologics with its newly installed CEO – the former Samsung Biologics exec James Park – unveiled its own ADC platform: the SoluFlex Link jointly developed by Lotte and Korean biotech Kanaph Therapeutics.
Celltrion, a major biosimilars developer, meanwhile, went big on its innovative biologics strategy, highlighting both its own antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform and a multispecific antibody platform supporting a pipeline of cancer drugs.
Meanwhile, James Jungkue Lee, CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics, used the conference to showcase results of its Phase II idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) candidate BBT-877. The candidate was being codeveloped with Boehringer Ingelheim before the Germany-based biopharma ended the collaboration in 2020.
Speaking to The Bio, he said: “Had the multinational pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim not discontinued BBT-877, we could have secured global exclusivity.” He added: “The development of BBT-877 is about two years ahead of its three competitors. At this JPM Conference, we held partnering discussions with four of the 10 major global pharmaceutical companies, and when including another, we have explored technology transfer opportunities for BBT-877 with a total of five global major companies.”
WuXi at JPM
Meanwhile at JPM, Chinese drugmaker WuXi Biologics was upbeat, telling delegates in a keynote the number of new integrated projects inked in 2024 stood at 151 – an all-time high.
The CEO also hinted at accelerated growth in 2025, implying the US political issues that hovered over the firm’s head last year may have been overstated. The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) was one of a number of firms named in the US bipartisan BIOSECURE Act that US-based firms were going to be banned from working with.
However, as reported in our previous Eyes on Asia, the bill was excluded from the US defense spending bill in December and with the newly installed administration the thought is BIOSECURE will be dropped. Watch this space…!
Zhenge’s IPO
Zhengye Biotechnology Holding Limited has raised $6.9 million in an initial public offering (IPO), through 1,500,000 shares priced at US $4 apiece.
The company will use the money raised to acquire vaccine production companies and conduct R&D projects.
Based in Jilin, China, Zhengye focuses on the R&D, manufacturing and sales of veterinary vaccines, with an emphasis on vaccines for livestock. The firm has 44 veterinary vaccines in its portfolio, including vaccines for swine, cattle, goats, sheep, poultry, and dogs.
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