"In" or "Out"? 2021 Biopharmaceutical Authorization Trading Market Point
looking back at the 2021, if you want to ask what is the big deal in biomedicine, the most eye-catching is the popularity of authorized transactions.
authorization cooperation methods include License-in "bringing in" and License-out "going out". License-in and License-out of pharmaceutical enterprises have gradually become a trend. On the one hand, the success of the forerunner has led other companies to follow suit, including a number of emerging biotechnology companies such as Baiji Shenzhou, Re-Ding and Junshi, which have rapidly grown into biopharmaceutical companies through this method.
authorized cooperation transaction volume is large, single amount is large
According to incomplete statistics, in 2021, the number of authorized transactions in the domestic pharmaceutical industry has reached 151, and its trading heat has increased unabated. In 2016, the number of transactions in China's License-in mode was only 29, while in 2020, the number of transactions in the whole year exceeded 100 for the first time. There was only one License-out in 2016, which has grown to 42 in 2020. In 2021, biopharmaceuticals accounted for half of the 150 plus cases, reaching 77 cases, including 56 cases of License-in and 21 cases of License-out.
, Hansen Pharmaceuticals has the highest single transaction amount. It has introduced Silence Therapeutics's unique mRNAi GOLD platform to cooperate in the development of siRNA drugs for three undisclosed targets. It will make a down payment of US $16 million and a milestone payment of US $1.3 billion. In addition, it will pay 10% ~ 15% royalties based on product sales.
transactions are Baiji Shenzhou, with 4 License-in transactions and 2 License-out transactions, introducing new therapies such as antibody and NK cell therapy and mRNA therapy respectively. The other License-out is PD1 and another monoclonal antibody drug, and the counterparties are old partner Novartis.
Chart 1: Number of authorized transactions per month for biopharmaceuticals in 2021
in the field of disease, the authorization transaction is still focused on tumors and central nervous diseases, the drug category is mainly antibody drugs, including double antibodies and ADC and other new antibodies.
Chart 2: Distribution of Biopharmaceutical Authorization Trading Disease Areas in 2021
License-in is the mainstream, multi-way rich pipeline
License-in is currently the main way for biopharmaceutical enterprises to buy assets, accounting for 86% of the total asset purchases in 2021. In addition to simple License-in, many enterprises also have long-term strategic cooperation or equity investment with counterparties. Various trading methods make their cooperative products wider and reduce the risk of commercialization failure of introducing a single product.
Figure 3: Distribution of biopharmaceutical asset buying patterns in 2021
License-in is Zaanding Medicine, with the highest total transaction amount. In the three transactions with Macrogenics,Turning Point Therapeutics and ARGENX, the total milestone amount reached 1.9 billion US dollars and the down payment reached 0.15 billion US dollars. And Macrogenics's 1.4 billion deal is interesting, visible in its dual anti-drug investment.
Chart 4: Re-Ding Pharmaceutical License-in Project Overview.
License-out: Domestic products are gradually recognized and the transaction volume rises.
License-out is the main way for domestic products to go abroad through innovation. With China's accession to ICH in 2017 and the gradual maturity of domestic innovative drug ecology, License-out cooperation between domestic pharmaceutical companies and international giants is increasing day by day, and the transaction volume is soaring. In the field of diseases, from popular PD-1 projects to new ADC, double antibodies and other projects are involved, and indications are also extended from anti-tumor to treatment of immune diseases, new crown vaccine, etc.
, of the 21 License-out transactions that took place this year, five companies, including Baiji Shenzhou, Rongchang Bio, Reege Pharmaceuticals, Gaocheng Bio and Junshi Bio, totaled more than US $1 billion, setting a series of new records for domestic License-out.
's most profitable License in 2021, the king of out, belongs to Baiji Shenzhou, with a PD1 transaction amount of up to $2.2 billion and another monoclonal antibody ociperlimab transaction amount of nearly $1.9 billion.
, the most frequent transaction is Baiaotai, which has gone out of 4 antibody products, all of which are in Phase 3 clinical trials, and the amount of a single transaction has reached more than US $0.1 billion.
Figure 5: Baiaotai License-out project at a glance.
pharmaceutical enterprises to enrich their product lines or accelerate the realization of pipelines through authorized cooperation, mainly because under the background of medical reform encouraging innovation and centralized procurement forcing transformation, authorized cooperation to accelerate the enrichment of pipelines can improve the possibility of commercial success. For enterprises, it can quickly realize the realization of products from the perspective of capital operation and occupy the market with the advantage of first mover from a strategic point of view.
2021 is over, and 2022 expect more local Chinese pharmaceutical companies to break through the innovation and reshape.
