AstraZeneca licenses CSPC’s cardiovascular drug in $2 billion deal
Dyslipidemia, a condition involving unhealthy levels of cholesterols and other fats in the blood, is a major risk factor in cardiovascular diseases, which make up the world’s biggest killer with 17.9 million deaths per year. While there are treatments for dyslipidemia, they are not sufficient to control the blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ‘bad cholesterol,’ in many patients.
The oral drug developed by CSPC is designed to prevent the production of a low-density lipoprotein called lipoprotein (a), which is involved in the transport of cholesterol in the bloodstream. By doing this, it may treat and prevent a range of cardiovascular diseases as a monotherapy or in combination with another small molecule candidate by AstraZeneca’s that depletes low-density lipoproteins by blocking an enzyme called PCSK9.
According to the deal terms, CSPC is eligible for $100 million upfront in addition to up to $1.92 billion in payments based on development and commercialization milestones, plus tiered royalties.
Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals R&D stated that the asset “could help patients to more effectively manage their dyslipidemia and related cardiometabolic diseases. Given the scale of unmet need, with cardiovascular disease being a leading cause of death globally, advancing novel therapies that can be used alone or in combination to effectively address known risk factors and advance patient care is particularly important and a key part of our strategy.”
The global market for cardiovascular disease treatments was worth a massive $144 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow by 4% per year to $208 billion by 2030. The market growth is being fuelled by increasingly sedentary lifestyles across the population, leading to higher prevalences of cardiovascular diseases in both young and old people.
This is the latest deal showcasing major interest from big pharma companies in cardiovascular disease treatments. AstraZeneca kicked off 2023 with a $1.8 billion takeover of the U.S. drug developer CinCor. Other examples include Novo Nordisk’s takeover of the German player Cardior Pharmaceuticals for up to €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in March this year and Bayer acquiring the European marketing rights to a small molecule cardiovascular disease treatment from Eidos Therapeutics of the U.S. for up to $310 million upfront in the same month.
AstraZeneca also has major interest in the field of obesity, having inked another $2 billion licensing deal with China’s Eccogene last year for global rights to the latter’s oral once-daily glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist.
