(Yicai) April 28 -- BeOne Medicines, the Chinese biopharmaceutical giant previously known as BeiGene, plans to acquire the global rights to a pre-clinical cancer therapy candidate developed by Chinese biotechnology startup Huahui Health.

BeOne’s subsidiary Guangzhou BeOne Medicines Biopharmaceutical signed a licensing agreement with Huahui Health to obtain the global exclusive license to develop, manufacture, and commercialize HH160, a trispecific antibody targeting PD-1, CTLA-4, and VEGF-A, as well as any products containing such compound, BeOne announced yesterday.

HH160, which is still in the pre-clinical research stage, is a trispecific antibody developed by Huahui Health based on its in-house PolyBoost multispecific antibody platform. Supported by three synergistic mechanisms of action, it can improve treatment efficacy while reducing side effects.

BeOne will transfer Huahui Health an upfront payment of USD20 million, with an additional option exercise fee of USD100 million due upon option activation. Moreover, it will pay up to USD374 million in development and regulatory milestone payments and no more than USD1.5 billion in sales-based milestone payments once the product hits the market.

The two parties will actively negotiate and discuss subsequent equity investment in Huahui Health by Guangzhou BeOne, the Beijing-based parent company noted.

As a leading oncology enterprise in China, BeOne has completed the international market layout for multiple self-developed core products through overseas licensing cooperation. It turned profitable for the first time ever last year, with a net profit of CNY1.5 billion (USD219.5 million) and revenue of CNY38.2 billion (USD5.6 billion).

The collaboration with Huahui Health marks BeOne’s first large-scale investment to secure global rights to an innovative drug in the early development stage.

BeOne’s shares [SHA: 688235] closed 0.9 percent down at CNY233.01 (USD34.10) today, after earlier gaining as much as 3.6 percent, as the Shanghai Star 50 Index fell 1.3 percent. The company’s Hong Kong-listed stock [HKG: 6160] was trading down 0.4 percent at HKD179.60 (USD22.92) as of 3.25 p.m. The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.9 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione