Anglo-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca announced that it signed a licensing agreement with Eccogene, a Chinese firm for oral medicines which will treat diabetes and obesity on Thursday, 9 November 2023.
The agreement is worth up to $2.01bn in total with Eccogene receiving $185mn as an upfront payment to give exclusive global rights, excluding China, to the development and marketing of the drug. A further $1.83bn will be payable depending on milestones, according to Financial Times.
“It will take a few years” for the company to develop the drugs, Pascal Soriot, Chief executive of Astrazeneca informed and said their costs would enable the drugs to reach a “much broader pool of population.”
“There is going to be significant investment required,” said Aradhana Sarin, AstraZeneca’s chief financial officer. “We want to make sure this is applicable to a broad population.”
Besides treating diabetes and obesity, the new drugs might be able to treat related conditions such as high blood pressure, added Soriot.
Even though AstraZeneca was “years behind” competitors in producing weight loss pills, it claimed to come up with the “next generation” of treatments.
Source: Financial Times
