Why does Junshi PD-1 cooperate with AstraZeneca?

Junshi Biotech and AstraZeneca have recently signed a promotion cooperation agreement on different indications of the PD-1 drug triprolizumab in different regional markets in China, which has attracted the attention of the industry.

According to the press release, Junshi Biologics has the exclusive right to promote all the approved indications (melanoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma) of teriprizumab in non-core markets in China, as well as urinary system tumors (urinary tract tumors) that will be approved for marketing in the future.

AstraZeneca is in the world's second echelon on the PD-1/PD-L1 circuit, and it also has its own PD-L1 product.

01 The foundation of cooperation is first of all complementary advantages

Teriplizumab is the first domestic PD-1 drug approved for marketing.

Another complementarity of the cooperation between the two parties lies in the commercial channels of different tiers of markets.

Previously, AstraZeneca had announced its entry into the county-level oncology market and established a county-level oncology team to promote all its oncology products, including both gefitinib, a lung cancer product that has been purchased in quantities, and the aforementioned Duval Liuximab.

AstraZeneca believes that this cooperation is Junshi Bio's recognition of its overall strength in the oncology field and its ability to commercialize at the local grassroots level.

Why do you want to authorize the non-core market for the approved indications of Teriplizumab? Junshi Bio responded by saying that it is mainly based on the consideration of the complementary advantages of both parties.

According to public information, the initial pricing of duvalizumab when it was launched was 18088 yuan (500mg) and 6066 yuan (120mg), which is much higher than the price of teriprizumab 906.

02 Why is urothelial cancer special?

Another aspect of this transaction that has received particular attention from the industry is why Junshi Biosciences is willing to take out this indication separately and authorize all its national rights to AstraZeneca? Neither party in the transaction gave a positive answer to this question.

Public information shows that in addition to the approval of AstraZeneca’s PD-L1 in China for stage III non-small cell lung cancer, other indications submitted to the NMPA are only extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, and no indications for urothelial cancer have been submitted.

In the indication of urothelial cancer, in the domestic PD-1/PD-L1 market, except for BeiGene’s tislelizumab which has been approved by the NMPA in April 2020, only Junshi has submitted it.

What is the future trend?

Compared with the previous PD-1 overseas authorization cooperation between Cinda and Eli Lilly, BeiGene and Novartis, and CStone Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, this is the first time that China Biotech has awarded it according to the indication and according to the level of a certain country's market.

AstraZeneca said that it will deepen its strategy of localization of multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Innovative Biotech, with R&D capabilities, cooperates with multinational pharmaceutical companies with channel capabilities, to a certain extent, giving play to the advantages of patient population coverage and channel advantages of both parties.