Amgen and Zhejiang sign cancer deal
pharmafile | May 14, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Amgen, Cancer, Zhejiang
Amgen has signed a joint venture deal with Chinese firm Zhejiang Beta Pharma to commercialise oncology drug Vectibix.
The companies hope that Amgen’s metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treatment Vectibix (panitumumab) can make inroads ‘quickly and efficiently’ into the Chinese market.
Vectibix’s global competition in mCRC is formidable – including Roche’s Avastin, Bayer’s Stivarga and Bristol-Myers Squibb/Merck Serono’s Erbitux – but China represents a significant opportunity and Zhejiang has an established oncology sales network in the country.
Founded in 2003, Zhejiang is headquartered in Hang-Zhou and has R&D operations in Beijing: the new joint venture will be named Amgen-Beta Pharmaceuticals Co, with ownership split 51-49 in Zhejiang’s favour.
While there are still closing conditions to be satisfied, which include the approval of relevant government authorities in China, the new entity is expected to be up and running shortly.
“This joint venture brings us one step closer to providing Chinese patients with Amgen’s medicines and supports our strategy of expanding in key, fast-growing markets,” said Anthony Hooper, executive vice president at Amgen.
“Our partnership with Amgen will be of long-term strategic significance not only for Zhejiang Province, but also for the whole medical community in China,” said Zhejiang chairman Lieming Ding.
“We share Amgen’s passion for developing molecularly-targeted therapies for unmet medical needs, and are confident that together we can help many Chinese patients who suffer from colorectal cancer,” he added.
Zhejiang launched Icotinib in 2011 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in China.
Vectibix is approved in more than 40 countries and was the first fully human anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody approved by the FDA for mCRC.
The drug was approved in the US in September 2006 as monotherapy for the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma with disease progression on or following fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin and irinotecan chemotherapy.
However, approval is based on progression-free survival – there is no data to suggest Vectibix can improve disease-related symptoms and it is not recommended for the treatment of colorectal cancer in patients whose tumours had KRAS mutations in codon 12 or 13.
Adam Hill
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