Oramed talking to new potential partners in China after Guangxi Wuzhou deal collapses
State-owned drugmaker Sinopharm and the Hefei Life Science & Technology Park Investments and Development Co – which operates an insulin plant – have paid Oramed half a million US dollars for exclusive rights to discuss a licensing and investment proposal.
Although final terms of the agreement are being negotiated, the basic deal would see Sinopharm and Hefei pay $38m (€34.4m) for exclusive rights to sell ORMD-0801 in China, $18m of which would be paid up front.
The remaining $20m would be paid after the results of an ongoing US Phase IIb clinical trial – which screened its first patient at the end of June – are released. The agreement would also see the Chinese organisations acquire a 10% stake in Oramed for $12m.
Termination
News of the negotiations follows a day after Oramed’s deal with China based company Guangxi Wuzhou Pharmaceutical Co, a subsidiary of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng Group Company, collapsed.
Guangxi Wuzhou paid $5m for a 6.5% stake in Oramed last November in an agreement that CEO Nadav Kidron said at the time would allow the Israeli firm “to continue to execute on our clinical development activities.”
And as recently as last month everything appear to be on track.
According to a post (here in Mandarin) on Guangxi Wuzhou's website the firm's board met with Oramed executives and dignitaries from the city of in Nanning, China to discuss the deal further on June 15.
However, last night (here in Mandarin) Guangxi Wuzhou announced the firms have terminated their agreement.
The Chinese firm said the decision followed a series of amendments to the original proposal that had made it impossible for the parties to agree final terms.
