Chinese, European drugmakers strike $500 million-plus deal

An agreement worth more than $500 million between privately-held Swiss/Greek pharmaceutical and clinical research group Sellas Life Sciences Group and Chinese pharmaceutical conglomerate Fosun Pharma, was signed in Athens, Greece, on October 24.

Specifically, the cooperation between Sellas with Fochon Pharma, a member of the Fosun Pharma group, concerns the development of two innovative therapies for type 2 diabetes and lung cancer which were discovered by Fochon Pharma and whose worldwide rights have been secured by Sellas in order to develop them, by conducting clinical trials, both internationally and in Greece. Fochon Pharma, under the terms of this agreement, assigns to Sellas the worldwide – excluding China - rights for development, marketing, sale and distribution of two novel molecules for type 2 diabetes and lung cancer.

Financial terms of the deal

Under the accord, Sellas, created by Greek scientist Angelos Stergiou, will pay Fosun Pharma's drug discovery subsidiary, Fochon Pharma, 388 million euros ($533.6 million) for the development of two novel molecules for diabetes (fotagliptin benzoate) and lung cancer (Pan-HER inhibitors) and to get them to the stage of health approval and commercialization for global market rights (except China). In addition, Fochon-Fosun, an expert in drug discovery and one of the top five domestic pharmaceutical enterprises in China, will receive a 10% royalty on sales.