Sino Biopharmaceutical has announced that Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group, a subsidiary of the company, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with AstraZeneca for the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of the group’s PDE3/4 inhibitor, TQC3721.

Subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement, the group shall grant AstraZeneca an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialise TQC3721 outside China.

AstraZeneca also gains exclusive global rights for certain future development programs. The group is eligible to receive an upfront payment of USD 200 million, with additional development, regulatory and sales milestones, totalling up to USD 1.9 billion, as well as tiered royalties ranging up to double-digit percentages based on the annual net sales of TQC3721 products.

The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearances.

As a global leader in respiratory medicine, this partnership will leverage AstraZeneca’s deep clinical development experience and respiratory expertise with the group’s innovation capabilities, accelerating the global clinical development of TQC3721, maximising the potential clinical and commercial value of this potential best-in-class medicine to benefit more patients worldwide.

This partnership represents the group’s second out-licensing transaction with a multinational pharmaceutical company this year, following the licensing collaboration with Sanofi in February. It marks another important milestone in the group’s globalisation journey and further validates the group’s in-house innovation capabilities and outstanding business development execution.

Looking ahead, the group will continue to expand its global partner network, deepen diversified strategic collaborations with multinational pharmaceutical companies, and strive to become the preferred innovation partner for global pharmaceutical companies.

TQC3721 is a highly differentiated inhaled PDE3/4 inhibitor discovered and developed by the group, with potential best-in-class characteristics across multiple respiratory indications. Through balanced inhibition of both PDE3 and PDE4, TQC3721 is designed to deliver synergistic bronchodilatory and anti-inflammatory effects, with the potential to improve lung function, reduce exacerbations and address broader disease burden in patients with chronic respiratory diseases.

TQC3721 is being developed in China by the group across nebulized and Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) formulations, supporting use across different patient segments, disease severities and commercial settings. In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), TQC3721 in a nebulized formulation has generated phase 2b data that demonstrate a potential best-in-class profile study. The nebulized formulation is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 clinical trial in China, while the dry powder inhaler formulation is also being advanced in a phase 2 clinical trial. TQC3721 has the potential to become the first domestically developed inhaled dual PDE3/4 inhibitor approved in China.