I-Mab Biopharma and CSPC Pharmaceutical jointly announced a strategic partnership between the two companies. Under the partnership, I-Mab's will grant an exclusive license to CSPC to develop I-Mab's long-acting GLP-1 Fc program (TG103) in China.
Under the terms of the agreement, CSPC will pay a down payment 15 million RMB in order to be granted an exclusive license to conduct the clinical development and commercialization of TG103 in China. In addition, CSPC will pay I- Mab 135 million RMB based on further milestone payments as part of the royalties, contribute to the development costs and pay a percentage of sales. CSPC will have the exclusive rights to fund and execute.
TG103 is an innovative, long-acting recombinant glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) for which I-Mab has achieved IND approval as a Fc-fusion with extended half-life. TG103 enables once-weekly or bi-weekly subcutaneous administration, which can significantly improve convenience and as a result to improve patient treatment compliance. In preclinical studies, and the on-going Phase I trial conducted in Germany, TG103 demonstrated a good safety profile, providing opportunity for drug combination.
"I-Mab is very excited about our strategic partnership with such a strong and integrated pharmaceutical group like CSPC pharma. During the negotiation, we were highly impressed by CSPC's professional and innovative team," said Zheru Zhang, Ph.D., President of I-Mab, "I-Mab is a company dedicated to providing patients with innovative biological treatments among which TG103 is strikingly innovative and safe. We believe through the partnership with CSPC, we will bring TG103 to patients with type 2 diabetes and potential market in China more efficiently. This strategic partnership with CSPC represents our third out-licensing transaction with well-known global and Chinese biopharmaceutical companies since 2017. These deals are a strong testament to our partners' endorsement of I-Mab's proprietary R&D capabilities. We will continue to be open and pragmatic in looking for future partnership opportunities to bring innovative biologic therapies to market in an expedited manner to address acute unmet treatment needs in key disease areas."
"CSPC, one of the most innovative companies in China has a responsibility of improving mankind's health. We are very pleased to enter into this partnership with I-Mab which is a highly innovative biological company. We expect this strategic partnership will strengthen innovation of our pipeline. We hope we will significantly improve the treatment safety and quality of patients' life with exploring clinical trials and commercialization of TG103 in China, and we also look forward to more cooperation with I-Mab," said ChunLei Li, Ph.D., Executive Director, Executive President and Chief Scientist of CSPC.