CANbridge Pharmaceuticals and WuXi Biologics Expand Rare Disease Therapeutics Partnership

On Jan 9, 2019

CANbridge Pharmaceuticals and WuXi Biologics jointly announced an expansion of their rare disease partnership to enable CANbridge to discover, develop and commercialize four additional drug candidates. These new candidates target rare genetic chronic diseases. According to the agreement, CANbridge has an exclusive regional or global rights for these therapies. WuXi Biologics will receive upfront, milestone payments and royalties. WuXi Biologics will also be the exclusive clinical supplier and primary commercial supplier for all these programs.

“With this expansion of our partnership with WuXi Biologics, CANbridge continues to broaden our presence in rare disease, with a goal of bringing to the market treatments that are developed in China,” said James Xue, PhD, Founder, Chairman and CEO, CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. “These four new drug candidates target important rare disease indications for which there are either no available treatments in China, or treatments with poor outcomes. These candidates are next generation therapies directed at medically-validated biological targets. Together with WuXi Biologics, we aim to change the rare disease landscape in China, with the submission of the first rare disease IND in China for our lead candidate later this year, and the development of new drug candidates that will bring much-needed treatments to patients with no, or few, options. In addition, we plan to impact the global market with these drug candidates which are developed in China.”

“We are excited to enable CANbridge to become a leader in rare diseases and to collaborate with them to bring more much-needed treatments to Chinese patients,” said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics. “This expanding partnership further validates our world-class technology platforms and capabilities. Improving the availability of biologics for rare disease aligns with our mission of accelerating and transforming how biologics are developed and manufactured worldwide.”