CStone Enters $1 Billion Deal with EQRx to Advance Immunotherapy Agents
CStone’s chairman and chief executive officer, Frank Jiang, pictured above. Photo courtesy of CStone.
Biotechnology company EQRx is adding two immunotherapy drugs to its product lineup under a newly announced agreement with CStone Pharmaceuticals, a Chinese pharma company that has agreed to out-license the rights for its anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 agents in exchange for an upfront $150 million payment and up to $1.15 billion milestone payments from EQRx.
The agreement provides exclusive rights to EQRx for CStone’s late-stage immuno-oncology anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody sugemalimab and anti-PD-1 CS1003. Under terms of the agreement, EQRx will lead global development and commercialization of the innovative therapies. Regions excluded from the deal include Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. CStone will retain rights to CS1003 in Greater China as it continues to work on developing the drug as a single-agent treatment or part of a combination therapy for advanced solid tumors.
"This partnership demonstrates the clinical as well as the commercial potential of sugemalimab and CS1003,” CStone’s chairman and chief executive officer, Frank Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., said in a statement. “Both are well suited to serve as backbone molecules for various combination therapies, an approach that is part of EQRx's vision for these drugs. The broad potential to develop combination therapies further strengthens our ability to pursue our combo strategy for CS1003 in China.”
Jiang added that the proceeds generated through the partnership will support CStone’s “ability to invest in strategic development initiatives and advance our transition into a fully integrated biopharma company."
Chairman, founder and chief executive officer of EQRx, Alexis Borisy, added, "We believe the addition of PD-L1 and PD-1 drug candidates to our expanding clinical pipeline provides EQRx and our strategic partners with optionality to deliver high-quality, lower cost treatment regimens across a broad range of cancers.”
One of the drugs EQRx will receive a licensing deal for – sugemalimab – is a PD-L1 antibody designed to target high-incidence cancer indications in China, such as frontline non-small cell lung, gastric and esophageal cancers. In August, the FDA provided clearance to CStone to study sugemalimab as a monotherapy for relapsed/refractory extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL). Subsequently, the drug was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adult R/R ENKTL. Additionally, sugemalimab has been granted orphan drug designation for T-cell lymphoma.
The other agent, CS1003, is being developed for treatment of advanced solid tumors. CS1003 is also being studied in a global registration trial as a first-line therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma. The FDA has already granted orphan drug designation for CS1003 in hepatocellular carcinoma.
CStone has a history of collaborating with pharma giants to advance its portfolio. Recently, CStone agreed to grant an exclusive license to Pfizer for the commercialization of sugemalimab. Both companies also agreed to collaborate on the development and commercialization of other oncology drugs in Greater China. In the collaboration, CStone also entered into a share subscription with Pfizer in which a Pfizer affiliate subscribed for newly Issued CStone shares at U.S. $200 million. The $200 million investment places Pfizer into a nearly 10% stake in CStone for the development and commercialization of the company’s checkpoint inhibitor.
And just last year, CStone entered into a collaboration deal with Bayer to study the safety and efficacy of sugemalimab with Bayer’s regorafenib, an oral multi-kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of several different types of cancer, including gastric cancer. Additionally, CStone partnered with Blueprint Medicine to initiate clinical development in China of CS1001 with Blueprint’s CS3008 for locally advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.