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AstraZeneca PLC (LSE/STO/Nasdaq:LON:AZN), the global biopharmaceutical company, has announced a strategic collaboration with CSPC Pharmaceuticals Group Limited, a company based in Shijiazhuang City, China. This partnership, disclosed in a recent 6-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is centered around the discovery and development of new oral treatment candidates through AI-enabled research.
The collaboration is designed to target high-priority areas in drug discovery, with the goal of advancing the development of novel oral candidates that could potentially treat a range of diseases across multiple indications. This includes a pre-clinical small molecule oral therapy for immunological diseases.
Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)’s Executive Vice President and Head of BioPharmaceuticals R&D, emphasized the significance of the partnership in accelerating the discovery of innovative therapeutic molecules to address chronic diseases affecting over two billion people worldwide.
CSPC will conduct the research using their AI-driven drug discovery platform, which harnesses artificial intelligence to analyze the binding patterns of target proteins with compound molecules, thereby facilitating the optimization and selection of effective small molecules with promising developability.
Financially, CSPC stands to gain an upfront payment of $110 million from AstraZeneca. Additionally, CSPC could receive up to $1.62 billion in potential development milestone payments and up to $3.6 billion in sales milestone payments, along with potential single-digit royalties on annual net sales of the products. AstraZeneca retains the rights to exercise options for exclusive licenses to develop and commercialize worldwide candidates identified under this agreement.
This collaboration builds on AstraZeneca’s ongoing commitment to innovation in China, following a substantial $2.5 billion investment in Beijing announced earlier in 2025. The partnership aligns with AstraZeneca’s focus on the discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology.
The information provided in this article is based on a press release statement.
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