(Yicai) Dec. 6 -- China's Abbisko Therapeutics could win at least USD675.5 million from its new licensing agreement with German pharmaceutical giant Merck regarding a novel drug to treat tenosynovial giant cell tumors.

Merck will pay USD70 million upfront and follow up with research and milestone payments up to UD605.5 million to commercialize Pimicotinib, a small molecule CSF-1R inhibitor, in China, the Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical firm announced recently. Abbisko could also receive a double-digit percentage of annual sales, it added. However, Abbisko will retain development rights to the homegrown drug used to treat TGCT not amenable to surgery.

The medicine that targets tumors that form in the soft tissue around the joints is currently in phase three trials. Pimicotinib has received breakthrough therapy designation and priority drug designation in China, the United States, and Europe. China has about 60,000 new TGCT cases per year, and for the US, the corresponding number is 14,000, but the Chinese market has no specific pharmacological cure and the US only has one, Abbisko said.

In the first 11 months of this year, Chinese medicine developers inked over USD24.4 billion in agreements to license the use of 36 innovative medicines, and both numbers surged to new highs since 2020, according to Chinese drugmaker WuXi AppTec.

Founded in 2016, Abbisko makes small-molecule cancer treatments. It has 15 drug candidates in clinical or preclinical stages but no products yet on the market, according to the interim report.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine