China’s Fosum Pharma forms JV with Kite Pharma for cancer therapies
One of China’s leading healthcare groups, Fosun Pharma, has formed a joint venture (JV) with California, US-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Kite Pharma, Inc. for the development and commercialization of the latter’s cancer treatment in China.
To be named Fosun Pharma Kite Biotechnology Co., Ltd., the joint venture will be registered in Shanghai, China and owned equally by the two companies. It is set to develop, manufacture and commercialize axicabtageneciloleucel in China with the option to include additional products, including two T cell receptor (TCR) product candidates from Kite.
Axicabtageneciloleucel (KTE-C19), Kite’s lead product candidate, is part of an experimental class of drugs that are made by genetically altering a patient’s T-cells, a type of white blood cell, in the lab to help the immune system find and kill cancer cells..
Kite Pharma said it would receive an upfront payment of US$40 million from the JV, funded by Fosun Pharma as well as regulatory and commercial milestones totaling US$35 million. The company is also eligible for mid-single digit sales royalties for its lead investigational therapy axicabtageneciloleucel.
Fosun Pharma will provide US$20 million in funding to support clinical development and manufacturing activities and Kite will provide certain technical transfer services to the joint venture. Profits from the joint venture will be shared between the two companies, with Kite Pharma receiving 40% and Fosun Pharma receiving 60%.
The joint venture will initially focus on axicabtageneciloleucel, Kite’s lead product candidate for the treatment of B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. The joint venture will also have the option to license additional product candidates from Kite.
China is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world after the US. With increasing incidence and mortality, cancer is the leading cause of death in China with over 4 million new cases per year. According to recent estimates, there are approximately 73,000 newly diagnosed cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in China each year.
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