(Yicai) Dec. 22 -- Chinese anti-tumor drugmaker CStone Pharmaceuticals plans to sell the rights for developing, producing, and commercializing its precision therapy against acute myeloid leukemia in China and Singapore to French peer Servier.

Servier will pay CStone USD44 million in advance and USD6 million once the deal is concluded for the exclusive rights of Tibsovo in China and Singapore, the pair announced yesterday.

China’s National Medical Products Administration approved Tibsovo for treating adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia with a susceptible IDH1 mutation in January last year, CStone said in yesterday’s statement. The therapy has been used in over 80 hospitals and direct-to-patient drugstores and included in about 100 city and commercial insurances.

CStone will use the proceeds of the rights sales to optimize resource allocation and focus on developing more drugs, the firm added, noting that Servier will help expand the indications of Tibsovo in China and Singapore and improve patients’ access to the drug.

Servier acquired US drugmaker Agios Pharmaceuticals’ tumor business in 2021. CStone obtained the rights to develop and commercialize Tibsovo in China and Singapore after signing an exclusive cooperation and licensing agreement with Agios in 2018.

As the new deal between CStone and Servier comes into effect, the agreement between CStone and Agios will be terminated, and CStone will no longer need to pay any fees to Agios.

CStone has sold the rights to other immunotherapies and precision medicines. It sold the development, registration, manufacturing, and commercialization rights for anti-PD-1 antibody Nofazinlimab in the Chinese mainland to 3SBio and the exclusive rights to commercialize rearranged-during-transfection inhibitor Gavreto in the Chinese mainland to Shanghai Allist Pharmaceuticals.

Editor: Futura Costaglione