AstraZeneca (AZ) and CSPC Pharmaceuticals Group have entered into a partnership worth up to $5.3bn to develop therapies for chronic conditions.
The strategic research collaboration will focus on the discovery and development of pre-clinical oral candidates with the potential to treat diseases across multiple indications, including a small molecule therapy for immunological disorders.
China-based CSPC will carry out the research using its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery platform, while AZ will have rights to exercise options for exclusive global licences to develop and commercialise candidates identified under the agreement.
In exchange, CSPC will receive $110m upfront and will also be eligible for up to $1.62bn in potential development milestone payments and up to $3.6bn in sales milestone payments, as well as royalties on future sales.
Sharon Barr, executive vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AZ, said the deal “underscores [the company’s] commitment to innovation to tackle chronic diseases, which impact over two billion people globally”.
“Forming strong collaborations allows us to leverage our complementary scientific expertise to support the rapid discovery of high-quality novel therapeutic molecules to deliver the next-generation medicines,” Barr said.
CSPC’s dual-engine efficient drug discovery platform uses AI to analyse the binding patterns of target proteins with existing compound molecules and conduct targeted optimisation, with the goal of identifying “highly effective” small molecules with “excellent developability”, according to AZ.
The deal is not AZ’s first with CSPC, after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker gained rights to the biotech’s pre-clinical lipid-lowering therapy in October last year.
The exclusive licence agreement, worth over $1.9bn, gave AZ access to YS2302018, an early-stage small molecule Lipoprotein (a) disruptor that could offer additional benefits for patients with dyslipidaemia.
Estimated to cause 2.6 million deaths globally every year, the condition is characterised by elevated lipid and lipoprotein levels in the blood, which can significantly increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes such as coronary artery disease, stroke and heart failure.
AZ said YS2302018 has potential in a range of cardiovascular disease indications as both a single-agent or as part of combination treatment, including with its oral small molecule PCSK9 inhibitor, AZD0780.