(Yicai Global) April 28 -- China’s Walvax Biotechnology will collaborate with American startup Sirnaomics to sell the latter's gene therapy to treat influenza in China.

Walvax will have the exclusive rights to produce and sell the medicine based on ribonucleic acid interference in China, including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao as well as Taiwan province, the Yunnan province-headquartered biotech company said in a statement yesterday.

The two are linked. A unit of Walvax has a 5.8 percent stake in the parent of Sirnaomics. The Chinese vaccine maker participated in the US firm's USD105 million Series D round of financing in October 2020.

Walvax will pay the Maryland-based company a down payment of CNY5 million (USD772,808) for the therapy that silences certain genes to combat diseases such as cancer. It will fork out CNY36.5 million (USD5.6 million) in preclinical research fees, as well as CNY100 million in total after reaching certain milestones. After the product hits the market, Sirnaomics will also enjoy royalties for 10 years.

The pair can make use of Walvax's advantages in treatments of infectious diseases and Sirnaomics' RNAi platform, the Chinese firm added.

Walvax's stock price [SHE:300142] was 4.4 percent down at CNY58.71 (USD9.10) this afternoon. The shares have risen by more than 50 percent in value this year.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi