WuXi, CANbridge establish first known partnership in China to tackle rare diseases: CEO
Under the partnership, WuXi Biologics is providing fully integrated drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services.
The China-based biopharmaceutical company CANbridge will be providing clinical, regulatory, and commercial services.
Zhisheng (Chris) Chen, PhD, CEO of WuXi Biologics, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com, “This is the first known partnership in China to tackle rare diseases.”
“The partnership will be long term as each drug may take five to eight years,” he added.
Chen explained the next step is to file an investigational new drug (IND) application for the first program in 2019.
WuXi Biologics will receive upfront payments, milestone payments, and royalties on global sales for these programs.
Under an exclusive licensing agreement, CANbridge has the option in the future to develop the therapeutics on a global basis.
CANbridge, which is developing drug candidates to treat underserved medical conditions in China and other markets, also announced a partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim’s China-based contract development and manufacturing business (CDMO) in August of this year.
The CDMO BioXcellence is providing the chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC) services for CAN017 – an ErbB3 (HER3) inhibitory antibody for the treatment of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC).
Following the successful clinical trial application (CTA) approval from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), CAN017 is now moving into a Phase Ib/III study in China.
