HUYA Bioscience wants stronger bonds with international drugmakers
The firm, based in Shanghai, currently provides co-development services for identifying promising preclinical and early stage drug candidates in China, before promoting global development and commercialisation.
Under the agreement, the company will gain access to TIPR’s research and development (R&D) projects. TIPR – which has both research and manufacturing capabilities for an end-to-end service – will leverage HUYA’s predictive expertise.
“This agreement is designed to ease and facilitate cooperation between Chinese researchers and global drug companies who seek to work with innovative Chinese compounds,” Alisa Barba, a public relations chief for HUYA, told Outsourcing-Pharma.
The deal is a first for HUYA, which would ordinarily in-licence favourable products through a series of strategic collaborations with leading universities and research institutions in China.
“HUYA's business model is to identify pharmaceutical innovation in China,” Barba added, before telling us the new alliance was just taste of things to come.
“Our agreement with the Tianjin Institute of Pharmaceutical Research is not exclusive,” she said.
“This first opportunity is not our only opportunity -- we look forward to working with certain researchers and on products at various stages in development.”
A different ball game
The partnership offers not only a new kind of relationship for HUYA, but also new capabilities in the development space.
Barba told us that TIPR offers programs in “vastly” different therapeutic areas to HUYA’s offering – largely in heart disease and oncology – including cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.
“Because TIPR has programs in vastly different therapeutic areas and targeting different specific disease indications, HUYA places a great deal of value on the opportunity this presents for partnership and global development,” she said.
She added that, in the future, the company envisages partnership with TIPR through the entire development process, including with its manufacturing capabilities.
