Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) kills more people than almost any other condition, with only heart disease and stroke claiming more lives each year.
AstraZeneca is one of a select group of players working to bring that toll down, and its latest move wagers that a Chinese biotech has found a solution.
The deal
The UK-based company has agreed to pay a subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical $200m upfront for the rights, outside China, to an experimental COPD drug called TQC3721.
The agreement, announced on 8 July, could be worth up to $1.9bn once development, regulatory and sales milestones are included.
The drug is made by Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group. Under the deal, AstraZeneca gains the right to develop, manufacture and commercialise TQC3721 globally outside China, along with rights to unspecified future development programmes.
Treatment landscape
Despite that toll, COPD treatment has only recently begun to move beyond long-standing treatments such as bronchodilator and steroid combinations.
Dupilumab, developed by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, was approved as the first biologic for COPD in 2024, marking a rare recent breakthrough.
Even so, the segment remains dominated by a small group of players, chiefly AstraZeneca, GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The science behind TQC3721
TQC3721 may offer a further path forward, though it remains several stages behind dupilumab in development. A phase 2 trial in China found the drug significantly improved lung function and symptoms compared with placebo, results Sino Biopharmaceutical has described as novel.
Sharon Barr, Executive Vice President for Biopharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said in a statement reported by Reuters that many people with COPD “continue to experience exacerbations despite existing therapies”, and that the new drug could offer an important additional option for patients.
AstraZeneca’s COPD pipeline
The licensing deal bolsters AstraZeneca’s existing COPD pipeline. In April, it reported that its own experimental treatment, tozorakimab, achieved a meaningful reduction in moderate-to-severe flare-ups in a late-stage trial, building on earlier positive data.
For Sino Biopharmaceutical’s subsidiary, the agreement marks its second out-licensing deal with a multinational pharmaceutical company this year. In March, it granted Sanofi rights to the blood cancer drug rovadicitinib.
AstraZeneca has not yet disclosed a timeline for further global studies of TQC3721.
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