China's Sino Biopharmaceutical and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim announced a multi-program option and license agreement on November 4 to develop cancer treatments using antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and T-cell engager (TcE) technologies. Under the agreement, Sino Biopharmaceutical will receive $358 million in upfront and near-term payments and could earn up to $7 billion in additional milestone payments. The companies will advance the selected drug candidates through further development.
The agreement covers six preclinical biologic programs. Five originate from LaNova Medicines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical, while the sixth comes from another group subsidiary, Beijing Tide Pharmaceutical. This is the companies' second oncology partnership.
Sino Biopharmaceutical will conduct early development of the programs. Once specified clinical milestones have been reached, Boehringer Ingelheim may exercise options to obtain exclusive development, manufacturing and commercialization rights. Four programs cover markets outside mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. The remaining two carry potential worldwide rights.
The additional $7 billion in potential payments is tied to option exercises and development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Sino Biopharmaceutical would also receive tiered royalties on future sales of successfully commercialized products, with rates potentially reaching double-digit percentages. All six programs remain at the preclinical stage.
