The giant Pharma GSK says hoping “new significant growth opportunities for the company beyond 2031” (archives).
Photo: KEYSTONE/EPA/TERESA SUAREZ
GSK has announced that it could pay up to $ 12 billion (9.5 billion francs) as part of an agreement signed with Chinese Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals to develop 12 new drugs, against respiratory diseases or cancers.
‘GSK will pay $ 500 million initially’, but ‘the potential total value of future payments’ in the context of this agreement, depending on the success of the drugs developed, could reach ‘around $ 12 billion’, to which can be added royalties, said the British pharmaceutical giant in a statement on Monday.
The treatments that will be developed by Hengrui Pharma concerns respiratory diseases, cancers but also affections in the field of immunology and inflammation, the press release said. GSK says we hope ‘new significant growth opportunities for the company beyond 2031’.
The agreement notably includes ‘an exclusive global license (excluding continental China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan)’ for treatment for chronic obstructive (or COPD) bronchopneumopathy.
GSK had announced last year that it would pay up to $ 1.4 billion for the acquisition of the company Aiolos Bio, based in the United States and the United Kingdom, which develops a new drug to treat asthma-a molecule initially developed by Hengrui Pharma.
The British laboratory had published in April a net profit up more than 50%, to 1.62 billion pounds, in the first quarter, and a turnover in slight increase (+2%) at 7.5 billion pounds.
/ATS
