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

2 February 2021
coherus-big

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.

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free.  A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Login to your account

Become a subscriber

 

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now
  • Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
  • Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
  • Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
  • Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
  • Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription
The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK

Companies featured in this story

More ones to watch >


Today's issue

Company Spotlight





More Features in Biotechnology