Innovent and Lilly expand partnership in oncology

China’s Innovent Biologics (HKEX: 01801) saw its shares rise 6.9% to HK$28.55 in late trading today, after it announced an expansion of its strategic collaboration with US pharma major Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY). As part of their commitment to continue bringing innovative medicines to benefit Chinese patients and to leverage the strengths of each party in a win-win manner, the parties will now expand the strategic partnership through:

1. an agreement for Innovent to obtain the sole commercialization rights to import, market, promote, distribute and detail Cyramza (ramucirumab) and Retsevmo (selpercatinib) once approved in Mainland China; and
2. a right of first negotiation granted to Innovent for potential future commercialization of pirtobrutinib in Mainland China.

Cyramza was the first US Food and Drug Administration approved treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma with disease progression on or after prior chemotherapy and the first FDA approved biomarker-driven therapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In China, Cyramza  in combination with paclitaxel was approved by National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for second-line treatment in patients with advanced or metastatic GEJ adenocarcinoma in March 2022, making it the first and only drug approved for the second-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer in China. The New Drug Application (NDA) for Cyramza as second-line treatment in patients with HCC with baseline alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) ≥400ng/mL following first-line sorafenib was accepted by NMPA in September 2021.