India Pharma Outlook Team | Monday, 28 July 2025
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently revealed that it had allied with Chinese Hengrui Pharma to co-develop up to 12 novel medicines. The collaboration was valued at potentially up to $12 billion and is intended to support GSK’s long-term growth approach, extending the pipeline and portfolio beyond 2031 and in RI&I and Oncology.
The collaboration includes a worldwide license agreement, excluding mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, for Hengrui's investigational PDE3/4 inhibitor, HRS-9821, a best-in-class PDE3/4 inhibitor being evaluated to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as an add-on maintenance treatment (it is in clinical trials currently). GSK hopes to promote a full range of treatment options to COPD patients with persistent symptoms or patients who do not respond to corticosteroids or biologics.
In addition to HRS-9821, the agreement lays the groundwork for 11 additional programs, where Hengrui will lead the early development and go through the Phase I clinical trials. They will give GSK an exclusive option to develop and commercialize these programs worldwide, excluding China, and will give GSK the ability to early stage swap out programs and select programs based on clinical data.
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GSK Chief Scientific Officer Tony Wood noted that the deal represents "strategic investments in programs that target validated targets," which improves their innovation pipeline. Additionally, Frank Jiang, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer of Hengrui Pharma, noted that this agreement is a huge milestone for Hengrui's globalization strategy and its enabler to develop and deliver advanced therapies across the globe.
The full value of the deal referenced milestone payments on development and regulatory, and commercial milestones, in addition to tiered royalties on global sales. This represents a great commitment to innovation and international collaboration in the drug development space.
