AZ deepens Chinese ties, signs $18.5bn CSPC obesity deal

AstraZeneca is already deeply embedded in China's pharma sector, and is hungry for more, pledging $15 billion to an investment programme in the country and signing a mammoth licensing deal with Hong Kong-listed CSPC Pharma.

The $15 billion spend – announced as UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is visiting China in an attempt to develop closer trade ties – will take place between now and 2030 and will tap into the country's "scientific excellence, advanced manufacturing, and China-UK healthcare ecosystem collaborations."

That announcement was followed shortly after by the news that AZ is paying $1.2 billion upfront to CSPC to tap into its LiquidGel sustained-release delivery technology for monthly dosing of medicines and an AI-powered peptide drug discovery programme.

The massive deal spans eight programmes in obesity and weight-related conditions and diabetes – including one ready to advance into clinical testing – and comes with potential milestone payments of $17.2 billion attached, according to CSPC.

According to a filing (PDF) with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it includes $3.5 billion in R&D milestone payments and up to $13.8 billion for meeting commercial objectives.

AZ has a couple of programmes in phase 2 for obesity, but is a long way behind rivals in the category, notably Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which currently dominate and are already bringing second-generation therapies to market. Analysts have predicted the obesity market could top $100 billion in value by 2030.

CSPC's clinical-ready asset is SYH2082, a long-acting GLP-1/GIP agonist that has a similar mechanism to Lilly's Zepbound (tirzepatide), but it would be dosed monthly rather than weekly, and is followed by three preclinical assets with "differing mechanisms designed to provide extended therapeutic benefits," as well as monthly dosing.

AZ's current pipeline features three small-molecule candidates in phase 2, namely GLP-1 agonist elecoglipron (formerly AZD5005), amylin receptor agonist AZD6234, and dual GLP-1/glucagon agonist AZD9550.

The company's head of biopharma R&D, Sharon Barr, said adding CSPC's candidates is "an important step in creating a portfolio of simple, scalable, and sustainable options that can help people with obesity and weight-related complications live better, healthier lives."

The new alliance builds on AZ's two prior agreements with CSPC, which could be worth more than $5.2 billion and around $2 billion, respectively.

The $5.2 billion alliance, signed last June, focuses on the use of its AI platform to find new medicines across a broad range of therapeutic categories, while the other gave AZ rights to a small-molecule lipoprotein(a)-targeted drug candidate for cardiovascular diseases.

Meanwhile, AZ said its $15 billion investment announcement in China – which includes some previously announced projects – will help deliver its 2030 ambition of delivering $80 billion in annual revenues and launching 20 new medicines.