The overall potential of siRNA-based therapeutics has attracted Chinese pharma companies to tap opportunities and bring promising innovative therapies across the globe. Against this backdrop, the Chinese pharma companies have increased their focus towards the siRNA pipeline through strategic alliances*, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
China pharma companies have executed four deals with siRNA players since January 2020. Hansoh Pharma has executed strategic alliances with Silence Therapeutics and OliX Pharma to develop siRNA-based therapeutics in October 2021.
Prashant Khadayate, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Pharma companies in China are continuously scouting for opportunities to enhance their innovative pipeline portfolio. They have forged siRNA-based strategic alliances in the past as well. However, there is an increasing trend in forging these alliances since 2020.”
According to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center, Hansoh Pharma's co-development partnership with Silence Therapeutics is the third biggest siRNA-based strategic alliance globally in terms of the deal's overall value since Jan 2020. Hansoh will make a US$16m upfront payment and Silence Therapeutics is eligible to receive up to US$1.3bn in additional development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Other high value siRNA strategic alliances include AstraZeneca’s US$4.1bn partnership with Silence Therapeutics in March 2020, followed by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ US$2.2bn partnership with PeptiDream in July 2021.
Overall, the siRNA landscape has received a push with increased activity from the pipeline perspective. This could be due to the expected success of Novartis inclisiran in hypercholesterolemia, with a consensus forecast of sales to reach US$2.3bn in 2027 as per GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center.
Khadayate concludes: “The number of high-value strategic alliances within siRNA therapeutics space has increased drastically. In recent years, an increase in deal value also denotes the potential opportunities that siRNA-based therapeutics can create for pharma companies. Moreover, it is essential to note that the high value strategic alliances recently executed by the pharma companies in the siRNA space are in the early stages of development.”
*GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center considers licensing agreements and partnerships as part of strategic alliances.
