(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- Shares of Hengrui Pharmaceuticals rose after the drugmaker granted US' Braveheart Bio the exclusive global rights outside of China to an innovative heart drug in a deal worth as much as USD1.1 billion, the Chinese firm's third such license agreement this year.

Hengrui [SHA: 600276] closed 5.6 percent higher at CNY72.47 (USD10.15) a share today, after earlier climbing by as much as 6.1 percent. The broader Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.2 percent.

Under the agreement, Braveheart will make an upfront payment of  USD65 million in cash and equity for HRS-1893, a small molecule inhibitor that can normalize myocardial contractile function to treat Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction and is now in phase III clinical trials, Hengrui announced late yesterday. Braveheart will also make near-term milestone payments of USD10 million after receiving tech knowledge on how to make the drug. 

In addition, Braveheart will need to continue making milestone payments when the drug reaches different clinical trial phases and regulatory review stages or sales hit various targets, with total payments potentially exceeding USD1 billion, plus a certain percentage of royalties based on sales figures, Hengrui pointed out.

Hengrui has invested around CNY60.7 million (USD8.5 million) in researching and developing HRS-1893, the company pointed out. Chinese regulators approved the drug to enter phase III clinical trials at the end of July, with no similar treatments available on the global market.

External licensing and cooperation deals for innovative drugs have become a major performance driver for Hengrui. In July, it announced a licensing deal with GSK that could bring in as much as USD12 billion by granting global rights to a portfolio of early-stage drug candidates, while it granted Merck the exclusive global rights outside of China to HRS-5346, an oral small molecule Lipoprotein(a) inhibitor in phase II clinical trials, in a deal worth as much as USD2 billion in March.

Hengrui has penned 16 external licensing cooperation deals so far, with such agreements bringing nearly CNY2 billion (USD280 million) of revenue in the first half of this year, accounting for about 13 percent of its total income.

Braveheart is a biopharmaceutical investment institution, recently set up by well-known overseas biomedical investors, led by Forbion Capital Partners, a leading European venture capital firm that focuses on the life sciences field, as well as OrbiMed Advisors, a global investment firm specializing in healthcare and biotechnology.

Editor: Martin Kadiev