AZ confirms China president has been detained

AstraZeneca has revealed that its top executive in China, Leon Wang, has been detained by Chinese authorities, after confirming he was under investigation last week.

AZ also said four other executives – two of whom are currently employed by the company and two who are former employees – are under scrutiny as a result of the probe. It added that the company itself is not thought to be directly under investigation.

The company gave the update to try to prevent further damage to its share price, which fell around 15% in the days since news of the investigation into Wang first emerged, wiping around £15 billion off its market value, although it has started to creep back up in the last 24 hours.

There are reports that the Chinese authorities are looking into multiple potential transgressions by the executives, including a previously disclosed investigation into claims that genetic test results had been falsified to make patients eligible for treatment with AZ's EGFR inhibitor Tagrisso (osimertinib) and defraud insurance companies.

That investigation has resulted in a series of charges against AZ staffers and convictions with prison sentences of more than 10 years in some cases, according to local media reports.

Another line of enquiry, which first emerged earlier this year, involves data privacy breaches and the import of unlicensed medicines. Now, it has been reported by analysts that the illegal imports could have involved cancer treatments Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), Imfinzi (durvalumab), or Imjudo (tremelimumab).

Imfinzi was first approved in China in 2019, while Enhertu was cleared there last year and Imjudo is not yet licensed for sale in the Chinese market.

AZ is not prepared to comment on the nature of the investigations, other than to confirm they are ongoing, and has reiterated its position that it will "fully cooperate with the Chinese authorities."

The spotlight on AZ – thought to have the largest presence in China of any overseas pharma group, with sales there reaching $5.9 billion in 2023 – comes in the context of a wider scrutiny of the healthcare sector by the Chinese authorities, as well as speculation that other foreign drugmakers could come into the probe's scope.

Respiratory win

Meanwhile, in a likely welcome diversion from the current attention on China, AZ reported some positive pipeline news this morning, specifically that its Amgen-partnered asthma drug Tezspire (tezepelumab) showed efficacy in a phase 3 trial in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRwNP).

The WAYPOINT trial showed that TSLP inhibitor Tezspire achieved a "statistically significant and clinically meaningful" reduction in the size of nasal polyps and reduced nasal congestion compared to placebo, according to AZ, which said it would discuss the data with regulatory authorities.

The result follows another positive readout for Tezspire in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which analysts could catapult the drug into multibillion-dollar blockbuster territory.

Tezspire sales in the first half of the year were $507 million, split across Amgen and AZ, which is due to report its third-quarter results on 12th November.

Image adapted from fotografierende via Pixabay