Novo Nordisk to pay $300 million upfront to license experimental GLP-1 pill from Hengrui
Novo Nordisk will pay $300 million upfront to Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals for rights to experimental GLP-1 pill HRS-1596, with Hengrui eligible for milestone payments up to $2.3 billion. Novo gets development, manufacturing and commercialization rights outside Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong and mainland China and plans global trials, without timelines.
(Adds details of filing, Novo statements; paragraphs 1-9) Sept 29 (Reuters) — Novo Nordisk will pay $300 million upfront to Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals for the rights to an experimental GLP-1 pill, the Chinese drugmaker said on Tuesday. The deal gains Novo a further potential revenue stream in the booming weight loss market, which analysts expect to generate annual sales of about $100 billion in the next decade. Drugmakers including Novo and rival Eli Lilly believe weight-loss pills could attract patients reluctant to use injections. Hengrui's HRS-1596 is approved in China to initiate Phase-I clinical trials for weight management and type 2 diabetes.
Existing products include Novo's once-daily pill Wegovy and Eli Lilly's once-daily Foundayo, also belonging to the GLP-1 class of drugs that mimic a gut hormone to curb appetite and regulate blood sugar in patients with diabetes. 3 billion, it told the Hong Kong stock exchange in a filing. Novo will gain development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights to HRS-1596 outside of Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong and mainland China. " A spokesperson for Novo told Reuters in an additional statement that it would plan global trials with the asset, but declined to provide timelines.
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