Pfizer and 3SBio have finalized a licensing agreement that grants the US pharmaceutical giant worldwide rights to sell the Hong Kong-listed firm's cancer drug, marking the largest deal ever for a single drug in China’s biotech industry.
Under the terms of their agreement, Pfizer will also pay 3SBio up to US$150 million to solely develop and commercialise SSGJ-707 within the mainland, the two companies said on Thursday.
3SBio’s shares fell 6.41 per cent to HK$28.45 on Friday.
The transaction reflected the strong momentum of Chinese biotech firms in the field of drugs research and the increased interest from major foreign pharmaceutical companies to license their intellectual property.
Chinese firms made 73 presentations at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, up from one a decade ago, according to the report. The event enabled more drug developers to showcase their latest research and find potential partners to accelerate the development of drug candidates across international markets.
In the first half of this year, the total transaction volume of drug licensing deals between Chinese biotech firms and overseas pharmaceutical companies reached US$66 billion, which surpassed the full-year amount in 2024, according to a report by China Post Securities earlier this month. This momentum is expected to extend into the year’s second half, the report said.
3SBio, meanwhile, plans to use about 80 per cent of the proceeds from the Pfizer deal for global research and development on projects in its pipeline, the firm said on Thursday. The rest of the sum was earmarked for general corporate purposes.
Cancer drug SSGJ-707, which is currently undergoing several clinical trials in China, targets non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer and gynaecological tumours.
