Fosun Pharma subsidiary Henlius Biotech is paying $10 million upfront for regional rights to HanchorBio’s phase 2 CD47 blocker.
In return for the rights to develop and commercialize the candidate, dubbed HCB101, in greater China, “key Southeast Asian countries, as well as all countries in the Middle East and North Africa,” HanchorBio will also be in line for up to $192 million in development and regulatory milestones as well tiered royalties.
Shanghai and San Francisco Bay Area-based HanchorBio has already taken HCB101, an engineered SIRPα-IgG4 Fc fusion protein, into phase 2 trials for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies including head and neck, gastric, colorectal and breast cancers.
There are currently no approved drugs that target the CD47 receptor, a protein embedded in cell membranes that instructs macrophages not to destroy the cell. Cancer cells take advantage of CD47 to evade the immune system, so inhibiting the receptor’s activity could enable macrophages to see and destroy the malignant cells.
In one high-profile CD47 failure, Gilead Sciences spent $4.9 billion in 2020 to acquire Forty Seven and the biotech’s lead asset, the CD47 inhibiting antibody magrolimab. After years of failed trials, clinical holds from the FDA and even patient deaths, Gilead finally dumped magrolimab for good in August 2024.
HanchorBio is touting HCB101 as having the strong efficacy of “earlier CD47-targeted agents” but allied to reduced hematologic toxicity.
“This agreement positions HCB101 as a key asset in Greater China and reinforces HanchorBio's scientific strength and global partnering strategy,” HanchorBio CEO Scott Liu, Ph.D., said in the release. “It also marks a critical milestone for HanchorBio's biopharmaceutical innovation as we pursue our mission to deliver globally accessible, next-generation cancer immunotherapies, and as Taiwan continues to gain global recognition."
Henlius, a partially owned subsidiary of Fosun International, has launched six products in China, including a biosimilar of Roche’s oncology blockbuster Rituxan, which was the first biosimilar approved in China and the first China-made biosimilar approved in Europe.
The Shanghai-based company won FDA approval last year for its Accord-partnered Herceptin biosimilar Hercessi and is awaiting a decision on its Organon-partnered biosimilar of Amgen’s bone drugs Prolia and Xgeva.
Fosun, which owns a 59.56% stake in Henlius, attempted to buy out its subsidiary, but that effort failed to win over shareholders in January.