On a recent earnings call, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said that, “longer term, we see continuous opportunity for growth in China.”
AstraZeneca is paying $160 million for FibroGen’s China business, giving the U.K.-based Big Pharma the regional rights to oral anemia drug roxadustat.The two companies' relationship around roxadustat stretches back over a decade. A year ago, AstraZeneca returned rights to the HIF-PH inhibitor in the U.S. and certain other countries but retained an interest in China and South Korea, where the drug is approved under the brand name Evrenzo.Today’s acquisition sees AstraZeneca pay FibroGen an enterprise value of $85 million along with $75 million of net cash that FibroGen currently holds in China. Once the transaction closes—expected in mid-2025—FibroGen said it will repay its term loan facility to investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value in a move that the biopharma said would “further simplify the company’s capital structure.”FibroGen entered the new year with $121.1 million in cash and equivalents. The sale of the Chinese subsidiary and repayment of the Morgan Stanley loan should together extend FibroGen’s cash runway into 2027, the company said.For AstraZeneca, the prize is the rights to roxadustat in China, where the drug is a category leader for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease. Chinese regulators are also mulling whether to extend the approval to chemotherapy-induced anemia. China approved a generic version of roxadustat made by local pharma giant CSPC Pharmaceutical last summer, and several other companies have filed their copies for approval in the country. Astellas already owns the rights to roxadustat in certain markets such as Europe, where the drug was approved in 2021. Today's deal means FibroGen retains the rights to roxadustat in its other existing markets like the U.S., where approval hopes were stalled after the FDA rejected an application for chronic kidney disease in 2021 and then the drug failed a phase 3 anemia trial in 2023. When it comes to the U.S., FibroGen said in this morning’s release that it “continues to evaluate a development plan for roxadustat in anemia associated with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome, a high-value indication with significant unmet medical need.” The biotech is hoping to meet with the FDA in the second quarter to determine the potential next steps for the development program, the company added.FibroGen CEO Thane Wettig said the sale of the Chinese subsidiary “bolster[s] our company on several fronts.”“It strengthens our financial position, meaningfully extending our cash runway into 2027, and enables us to continue progressing the clinical development program for FG-3246, our first-in-class, CD46 targeting antibody-drug conjugate, and FG-3180, our companion PET imaging agent, in mCRPC,” Wettig added. “After a thorough evaluation of alternatives, we believe selling our China operations and repaying our term loan is in the best interest of FibroGen’s stakeholders.”China is a major market for AstraZeneca, but the Big Pharma has faced challenges in recent months, including a potential fine for millions of dollars of importation taxes as authorities investigate the company’s former China head Leon Wang.In a fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this month, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said that, “longer term, we see continuous opportunity for growth in China.”