Santen's Strategic BD Deal with AbbVie: Deepening Its Ophthalmic Ecosystem in China

Recently, Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Santen”) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Santen Pharmaceutical (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Santen China”), has entered into an exclusive cooperation agreement with AbbVie for the distribution and promotion of five glaucoma eye drop products in mainland China.

This collaboration agreement has a term of six years and covers AbbVie’s glaucoma eye drop products that have been approved and marketed in mainland China, including Alphagan®, Alphagan P®, Lumigan®, Ganfort®, and Combigan®.

If interpreted solely from a financial perspective, this is merely a “thickening” of the product portfolio. However, when placed within the strategic context of Santen’s decades-long commitment to deepening its presence in China, a clearer signal emerges: Santen is accelerating the construction of an ecosystem for full-lifecycle ophthalmic care. The sole benchmark for this “comprehensive ecosystem roadmap” is the authentic needs of patients.

In the pharmaceutical industry, assessing the value of a business development (BD) deal begins with evaluating the quality of the underlying assets. What Santen Pharmaceutical (China) has acquired this time is not a promissory note still in the clinical stage, but a cash cow asset with an established market position, well-recognized physician awareness, and a stable patient base.

However, Santen’s ambitions extend far beyond the short-term revenue boost generated by these products; they lie primarily in the ecosystem value that can be leveraged behind them.

To grasp the true significance of this transaction, one must first recognize a stark reality: glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. According to the Chinese Glaucoma Guidelines (2020), there were approximately 21.8 million glaucoma patients in China in 2020, among whom 5.67 million suffered from blindness. Due to its insidious onset, more than two-thirds of patients are diagnosed at moderate to advanced stages. This implies that as China’s population ages rapidly, the demand for glaucoma treatment will continue to rise. More critically, pharmacological management of glaucoma has never been a “one-size-fits-all” affair. Patients exhibit varying responses to drugs with different mechanisms of action. Some patients are sensitive to prostaglandin analogs (PGs), while others require combination therapy with alpha-adrenergic agonists or beta-blockers to effectively control intraocular pressure. If a company’s product portfolio covers only a single mechanism, treatment regimens may become fragmented, complicating follow-up care and medication management.

Santen has established a presence in the glaucoma field. In March 2025, its preservative-free, fixed-dose combination product, tafluprost/timolol eye drops (Taflutan®), was approved for marketing in China. It became the first original ophthalmic combination formulation in China containing a prostaglandin (PG) derivative—a first-line therapy for glaucoma—while being preservative-free. It is indicated for lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, particularly those who require combination therapy due to inadequate response to monotherapy with beta-blockers or prostaglandin derivatives, and those who may benefit from using preservative-free eye drops. However, Santen’s existing product portfolio primarily focuses on PG-based mechanisms, leaving room for expansion into other mechanisms of action, such as alpha-adrenergic agonists.

This is precisely the core logic behind Santen’s introduction of five AbbVie products.

AbbVie’s five products complement the mechanisms of Santen’s existing prostaglandin (PG) product portfolio, significantly enriching Santen Pharmaceutical (China)’s therapeutic options for glaucoma across different stages of treatment. With this strategic integration complete, Santen has established a comprehensive matrix in the field of glaucoma management that encompasses both “classic and innovative medications,” enabling the provision of continuous care pathways for patients—from early-stage pharmacotherapy and combination therapy to surgical intervention.

This is not a mere “thickening of the product portfolio,” but rather a strategic synergy between Santen and AbbVie, two seasoned players in the ophthalmology sector.

Santen’s confidence in undertaking this collaboration stems from the robust infrastructure it has built through decades of deep engagement in the Chinese market: an extensive ophthalmology-focused promotional team and channel network that reaches ophthalmologists across the spectrum, from top-tier tertiary hospitals in first-tier cities to grassroots medical institutions, while continuously delivering academic education, physician training, and patient services.

This means that these classic medications, validated by decades of clinical use worldwide, will reach glaucoma patients in China more quickly and extensively through Santen’s mature distribution system—particularly those in underserved areas with limited access to primary healthcare resources.

Ultimately, the true value of this transaction lies not in reducing commercial costs, but in delivering tangible patient benefits and enhancing ecosystem value.

For physicians, it provides more comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic tools to deliver more coherent, integrated care plans; for patients, it offers more complete treatment regimens, greater flexibility in medication choices, and more continuous disease management.

This is precisely the profound significance of the partnership between Santen and AbbVie: leveraging the strategic synergy of the two companies to help elevate the overall standard of glaucoma diagnosis and treatment in China, ultimately benefiting millions of patients.

Strengthening the glaucoma segment is merely one critical piece of Santen’s ophthalmic ecosystem. Broadening the perspective beyond glaucoma reveals that Santen’s global footprint has long extended into wider domains—ranging from myopia in children and adolescents to dry eye disease in young and middle-aged adults, and from ocular surface disorders to treatments for fundus diseases. An ecological network covering the entire life cycle, from the ocular surface to the fundus, is taking shape.

During childhood and adolescence, Santen is focusing on addressing two core challenges: myopia and severe allergic eye diseases. Through the introduction of 0.025% atropine sulfate eye drops (RYJUSEA®) in Boao Lecheng, Hainan, Phase III studies have demonstrated that it can slow myopia progression by approximately 0.65 D, providing an evidence-based pharmacological intervention option for children and adolescents with rapidly progressing myopia. Meanwhile, Vekasia® (cyclosporine eye drops), indicated for vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC), fills the gap in pediatric indications in China.

Targeting the working population of young and middle-aged adults, Santen focuses on addressing lifestyle-related eye health issues.

In the field of dry eye disease, Santen offers an extensive portfolio of sodium hyaluronate eye drops. For the large population of contact lens wearers, it has launched Kaisuono® lubricating eye drops, which utilize cationic nano-emulsion technology, are preservative-free, and provide long-lasting lubrication. To address the high prevalence of allergic conjunctivitis, Santen introduced ALESION® Eyelid Cream (epinastine hydrochloride cream)—the world’s first dual-action anti-allergic medication administered via the eyelids—through the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone.

In the field of retinal diseases, Santen has also made significant strategic moves.

Through a licensing collaboration with RemeGen valued at over RMB 1 billion, Santen has secured exclusive rights to RC28-E, a VEGF/FGF dual-target fusion protein, in Greater China and several Asian countries. The New Drug Application (NDA) for this product for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) has been accepted by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE), and the application for wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) is expected to be submitted in mid-2026.

Furthermore, Santen has partnered with Jimu Biology to introduce ARVN001, the world’s first suprachoroidal injection therapy, achieving a new breakthrough in targeted drug delivery to the posterior segment of the eye.

These initiatives may appear fragmented, but in reality, they share a common set of core capabilities: a physician education system, a channel reach network, and patient service processes. It is precisely these foundational capabilities that enable the disparate product segments to be organically integrated into Santen’s comprehensive ecosystem. Centered on the real needs of patients throughout their entire life cycle, the company continuously enriches its ecosystem by combining proprietary products with external collaborations, thereby leveraging a holistic ecosystem to address the full-course healthcare needs of every patient.

The ingenuity of Santen’s ecological layout lies not only in the richness of its product portfolio but also in the deep synergy among its various business segments. This synergy represents not merely complementarity at the product level across different ophthalmic disease areas, but more importantly, the comprehensive sharing of foundational capabilities in channels, academic engagement, and patient services.

From glaucoma to myopia, and from dry eye to fundus diseases, an ecological network covering prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation is taking shape. This synergy is clearly evident on both the physician and patient sides: physicians gain access to more coherent “one-stop” diagnostic and therapeutic tools, while patients enjoy more convenient “one-stop” eye health management.

However, the true test of an ecosystem lies not in the number of products or the length of the pipeline, but in whether these products can be used precisely and efficiently in real-world clinical settings. Santen’s decades of deep cultivation in the Chinese market have earned it a strong professional reputation and a solid channel foundation. The transaction with AbbVie represents a critical enhancement to its ecosystem.

This ecosystem layout, centered on synergy and guided by clinical value, enables Santen to advance further and more steadily in the field of ophthalmology. Underpinning this achievement is Santen’s 135 years of deep cultivation and focus in ophthalmology—a level of dedication that represents not only a rare strategic resilience but also the deepest business moat, supporting the steady implementation of its ecosystem strategy.

Focus, in itself, represents the highest level of business efficiency. The hundreds of millions of eye disease patients in China will ultimately reap a brighter visual horizon and a higher quality of life thanks to this focus and efficiency. What Santen practices is a long-term commitment to translating “strategic expansion” into “clinical value”—a testament to its century-long dedication and the most vivid embodiment of its global vision, “Happiness with Vision,” in China.