Citrine Medicine, a China-based rare disease therapeutics company, and Sinopharm Group, a Chinese pharmaceutical company, announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the commercialization of rare disease drugs in China. The two companies will work together to build a rare disease ecosystem in China and enable the availability of more rare disease therapies to Chinese patients in need.
As part of the collaboration, Sinopharm Group will support Citrine in building a supply chain and securing distribution channels for delivering innovative rare disease therapies to patients in need. Sinopharm Group has more than 1,000 branches and subsidiaries, covering 388 prefecture-level cities in 31 provinces in China, enabling the company to reach patients in urban and rural regions across China.
“We are very excited to launch this new strategic partnership with Citrine Medicine,” said Yong Liu, President of Sinopharm Group. “As a leading biopharmaceutical company in China, Citrine Medicine is working to introduce multiple innovative drugs to serve patients with rare diseases. Sinopharm Group will leverage our knowledge and our connections within China’s drug development supply chain to support Citrine in accelerating the pace at which we can bring new therapies to patients who need them.”
“This new partnership with Sinopharm Group brings us closer to our vision of creating the very first rare disease ecosystem for patients in China,” said Melissa Bradford-Klug, President and Chief Business Officer of Citrine. “By working with Sinopharm, we will strengthen our relationships with strategic partners across China, including state-run distribution networks, enabling us to more rapidly bring more first- and best-in-class breakthrough therapies to the approximately 20 million patients with rare diseases living in China.”