The FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant will have access to exclusive global rights, outside China, to CSPC’s once-a-month dose technology for experimental weight management treatments
AstraZeneca has major UK hubs in Cambridge and Macclesfield(Image: Getty Images)
AstraZeneca has announced a strategic partnership with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical Group valued at 18.5 billion US dollars (£13.4 billion) to accelerate the development of experimental weight loss and diabetes treatments, as the pharmaceutical giant seeks to expand its presence in the rapidly growing weight management market.
The agreement grants the FTSE 100 company exclusive worldwide rights, excluding China, to CSPC’s monthly-dose technology portfolio for weight management, providing an alternative to daily injections currently on the market.
The partnership will extend to four additional programmes, using CSPC’s advanced platforms for long-acting technology and artificial intelligence-driven peptide drug discovery.
Sharon Barr, executive vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, said: “This strategic collaboration advances our weight management portfolio by delivering novel assets which complement our existing programmes.”
She added: “It will provide access to CSPC’s proprietary, AI-enabled, peptide capabilities and platform technology, which have the potential to transform the treatment of obesity, helping to address adherence and convenience as key barriers to long-term therapeutic success.
“This is an important step in creating a portfolio of simple, scalable and sustainable options that can help people with obesity, and weight-related complications live better, healthier lives.”
Dongchen Cai, chairman of CSPC, described the arrangement as a “win-win collaboration”. He said the agreement will enable the companies to “deliver the next generation of treatments that build upon the emerging science, using our technology platforms and AstraZeneca’s complementary capabilities and reach, to realise global health benefits for people in need of improved weight management”.
This represents the latest collaboration between the two firms, who have previously partnered on projects such as artificial intelligence (AI). In exchange for access to eight weight loss programmes in total, AstraZeneca will pay CSPC an upfront fee of 1.2 billion dollars (£870 million), with up to a further 17.3 billion dollars (£12.6 billion) contingent on development and sales milestones being achieved.
The deal is anticipated to be finalised in the second quarter. This move sees AstraZeneca increase its investment into the rapidly expanding market for weight loss and diabetes drugs, which has hitherto been dominated by blockbuster brands Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy.
According to AstraZeneca, it is estimated that nearly three billion people worldwide are obese or overweight. The company said obesity was a “chronic, relapsing, multifactorial disease and contributes to over 200 complications”.
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![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-80x80.jpg)
