CORRECTING and REPLACING Hansoh Pharma Announces Strategic Collaboration and Licensing Agreement for Almonertinib | Business Wire

CORRECTING and REPLACING Hansoh Pharma Announces Strategic Collaboration and Licensing Agreement for Almonertinib | Business Wire

Hansoh Pharma lands global partner for its novel lung cancer therapy

Jiangsu's Hansoh Pharma has named EQRx as its strategic partner in commercializing its lung cancer drug, almonertinib, for the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other global markets.

EQRx will pay Hansoh Pharma $100 million as upfront payment and developmental and regulatory milestones for almonertinib. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company will also join the 25-year old Chinese drug manufacturer in launching global studies to expand the drug's potential in monotherapy and combination therapy settings.

The partnership gives EQRx a lung cancer therapy that can compete with AstraZeneca's Tagrisso. It's a deal that plays into the biotech startup's "fast follow" approach of quickly getting drugs on the market to undercut more expensive options offered by competitors.

Approved by China's National Medical Products Administration in March, almonertinib, marketed as Ameile, is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor developed to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer that harbor the T790M mutation.