Shanghai Securities News (Reporter Zhong Qian) — Hengrui Pharma announced on the evening of October 30 that it had reached an exclusive licensing agreement with Merck Healthcare (hereinafter referred to as "Merck") to grant a paid license for its proprietary Class 1 new drug, HRS-1167 tablets and SHR-A1904 injection projects, to Merck. According to reports, this is the first strategic cooperation between Hengrui Pharma and a global large multinational enterprise. The agreement also includes the exclusive option for SHR-A1904, a Claudin-18.2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) independently developed by Hengrui.
According to the terms of the agreement, Hengrui will receive an upfront payment of 160 million euros, technology transfer and option exercise fees of up to 90 million euros, as well as R&D milestone payments and sales milestone payments. The total potential payments may reach up to 1.4 billion euros. In addition, Merck Group will also pay Hengrui tiered sales royalties in the high double-digit percentage range.
"Cancer treatment still has enormous unmet clinical needs globally. We are very pleased to collaborate with Merck Group, allowing Hengrui Pharma's innovative drugs to reach the world and benefit cancer patients globally," said Dr. Jiang Ningjun, Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Hengrui Pharma. "This licensing collaboration with Merck Group on the PARP inhibitor marks an important milestone in Hengrui's international strategic development. We look forward to accelerating R&D and driving innovation to bring better new treatment options to patients who have long faced therapeutic challenges."
It is reported that HRS-1167, independently developed by Hengrui Pharma with intellectual property rights, is a selective, highly active, and orally administrable small-molecule PARP1 inhibitor, belonging to the second-generation PARP inhibitors. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) plays a key role in repairing DNA damage. Compared with first-generation PARP inhibitors, HRS-1167 demonstrates higher selectivity for PARP1, stronger affinity, and the ability to induce DNA trapping. Currently in the early stages of clinical development, HRS-1167 has the potential to be used as both monotherapy and combination therapy to treat a broader patient population.