U.S. Biotech Amgen Strikes Major Deal to Expand China Presence
Amgen is taking a major stake in Chinese biotech BeiGene to grow its business footprint in China.
Good afternoon, readers (and a Happy Halloween to those who “celebrate.”)
China is in the early throes of a biotech explosion. And American companies have taken notice.
On Thursday, U.S. biotech giant Amgen announced that it will take a 20.5% stake in BeiGene, a firm which IPO’d in the U.S. back in 2016 with a $158 million public offering and then had a subsequent $903 million secondary IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange in summer of 2018. (Stunningly, that secondary debut was seen as a disappointment compared to what the company could have picked up at the time.)
A whole bunch of factors likely played into this decision, including fundamental changes China has made to its financial and public health regulations surrounding experimental biotech companies in recent years.
For more on that, I encourage you to read up on a recent conversation I had with Brad Loncar, an investor who runs cancer immunotherapy-based funds in both the U.S. and China.
But Amgen’s $2.7 billion cash stake in BeiGene will include a profit-sharing and commercialization agreement for a number of Amgen cancer drugs in China, as well as R&D partnerships for a few other treatments.
Read on for the day’s news. And trick or treat.
Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com