(Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis has paid $ 650 million for the seizure of an immuno-oncology drug from BeiGene Ltd, the newest Western drug dealer turning to China for funds needed to have to fill holes in their cancer records.
The move by Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, which could bring in $ 1.55 billion in milestone and realm payments for BeiGene, is also a contradiction from comments two years ago when it raised concerns about data quality and innovation. customize as a barrier to Chinese Big Pharma’s M&A dreams.
Novartis co-develops BeiGene tislelizumab, a keytruda-like anti-PD-1 antibody from Merck and Opdivo of Bristol-Myers Squibb that helps the immune system fight cancer and has garnered billions of dollars in sales.
Pfizer has a $ 200 million investment in CStone Pharmaceuticals in China in September, also targeting an immuno-oncology fund, is another such deal.
Like Pfizer, Novartis has struggled to develop a cancer immunotherapy fund, with home spartalizumab failing a skin cancer test last year. That quickly gave impetus to fund BeiGene, which Novartis hopes to partner with other pharmaceuticals.
Susanne Schaffert, head of the Novartis cancer district, promised to use tislelizumab “to develop transformative therapies for patients,” she said.
The drug BeiGene has long been considered by Western drug makers: Celgene bought tislelizumab rights in 2017 for $ 263 million, but returned them when the U.S. company was bought by Bristol- Myers Squibb for $ 74 billion in 2019.
“DATA QUALITY”
In May 2019, Novartis’ Narasimhan hit a tight tone about Chinese M&A targets, telling investors “you don’t see the real discovery of a new target leading to novel drugs” and that “data quality needs to go up ”.
With gaps to fill, however, Narasimhan is now adding tislelizumab at BeiGen, also because the drug may have properties that can overcome problems that impair anti-tumor activity. other immuno-oncology drugs.
Novartis promotes tislelizumab in North America, the European Union and Japan.
Tislelizumab is approved in China for lymphoma and bladder cancer.
Reporting with Derek Francis in Bengaluru and John Miller in Zurich; edited by Richard Pullin and Michael Shields