Coherus forks out $1.1 billion for toripalimab rights in USA and Canada

Coherus BioSciences’ (Nasdaq: CHRS) shares gained 12% yesterday, after it announced a collaboration with Shanghai Junshi Biosciences (HKEX: 1877) for the development and commercialization of toripalimab, the Chinese firm’s anti-PD-1 antibody, in the USA and Canada, which could be worth as much as $1.1billion to the latter.

Upon satisfaction of closing conditions, Coherus, best known as a developer of biosimilar drugs, and Junshi Biosciences will co-develop toripalimab, and Coherus will be responsible for all commercial activities in the licensed territory. Under the terms of the deal, Coherus will also be granted options to Junshi Biosciences’ TIGIT-targeted antibody and next generation engineered IL-2 cytokine for evaluation as potential combination therapies with toripalimab, as well as certain negotiation rights to two early-stage checkpoint inhibitor antibodies.

“Toripalimab has a compelling late-stage clinical profile and will be the cornerstone of our immuno-oncology franchise. This transaction expands our late-stage pipeline into the rapidly growing checkpoint inhibitor market, which is expected to exceed $25 billion in the United States by 2025, and provides us a PD-1 backbone for potential long-term growth with next-generation immuno-oncology combinations,” said Denny Lanfear, chief executive of Coherus.