(Yicai) Sept. 28 -- Some overseas pharmaceutical firms, including Switzherland's Novartis and AbbVie Global of the US, have recently ended at least six licensing deals for innovative drugs signed with Chinese companies, mainly due to commercial factors and the global environment.

BeiGene’s cancer treatment tislelizumab had its almost three-year global licensing agreement with Novartis terminated on Sept. 19, while I-Mab said on Sept. 20 that its nearly USD3 billion deal with AbbVie for lemzoparlimab, a novel CD47 antibody designed to offer unique advantages in drug safety without compromising efficacy, will end on Nov. 22.

The end of the tislelizumab deal is connected with Novartis' global strategic adjustments, according to Wu Xiaobin, president, chief operating officer, and China general manager at BeiGene. The Beijing-based drugmaker has built up its overseas commercial infrastructure over the past three years, so the demise of the licensing agreement can help to boost its overall performance, Wu noted.

The termination of the licensing deals may be partly due to the global environment, but also problems with the projects, the details of which are still unclear, Ding Lieming, chairman and chief executive officer of Betta Pharmaceuticals, told Yicai at the China Biomed Innovation and Investment Conference. Chinese drugmakers need to improve the quality of their research, development, and innovation, he pointed out.

Global industry giants stopped paying for the authorizations of these drugs due to commercial factors, said Li Ning, CEO of Junshi Biosciences. Some companies will choose to continue tie-ups only if they think future sales of a drug are likely to exceed USD1 billion, Li added, noting that terminated licensing deals are not necessarily bad for Chinese firms.

It is normal for domestic and foreign pharmaceutical firms to join hands to develop and promote innovative drugs in the biopharmaceutical sector, but whether the partnerships can endure depends on the core factors of clinical value and market demand, said Yang Dajun, chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma Group International.

China's new in-bound licensing agreements for innovative drugs were worth USD3.7 billion last year, while the new out-bound licensing deals reached USD11.5 billion, according to figures from pharma data provider Insight.

Editor: Martin Kadiev