AstraZeneca PLC on Friday reported an AI-focused collaboration with Shijiazhuang City, China-based CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, boosting its existing presence in the country.
Focused on AI-enabled research, the agreement will see the Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical company work with CSPC Pharmaceutical to progress both the discovery and development of ‘novel oral candidates’ that could target diseases across different indications.
AstraZeneca said that the deal terms denote that both companies will team up on the development of pre-clinical candidates with potential to treat diseases across chronic indications. It noted that this includes a pre-clinical small molecule oral therapy for immunological diseases.
CSPC Pharmaceutical is set to receive $110 million as an upfront payment under the terms of the deal, with it eligible for $1.62 billion in possible development milestone payments, coupled with up to $3.6 billion in sales related payments. That would be around $5.3 billion in total.
AstraZeneca noted that CSPC Pharmaceutical could also receive single digit royalties tied to annual net sales.
Shares in AstraZeneca were down 0.2% at 11,012.00 pence each on Friday morning in London.
The deal terms also give AstraZeneca the rights to exercise options for exclusive licences to develop and commercialise worldwide candidates identified as part of the agreement.
CSPC Pharmaceutical will be responsible for carrying out the research, said AstraZeneca, with it utilising its AI-driven, duel engine efficient drug discovery platform.
AstraZeneca said the platform utilises AI to ‘analyse the binding patterns of target proteins with existing compound molecules, conduct targeted optimization, with the aim of selecting highly effective small molecules with excellent developability.’
It added that the strategic collaboration also boosts its existing presence in China, following its $2.5 billion investment in Beijing reported in March.
AstraZeneca Executive Vice President Sharon Barr commented: ‘This strategic research collaboration underscores our 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.’
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