Hutchison China MediTech (HCM) and BeiGene (BGNE) have now entered into a clinical collaboration agreement for the treatment of various solid tumor cancers.
The collaboration will evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of two of Chi-Med’s drug candidates, surufatinib and fruquintinib, combined with BeiGene’s anti-PD-1 antibody tislelizumab for cancer treatment in the US, Europe, China and Australia.
Chi-Med and BeiGene each plan to explore development of the combination of these drug candidates in different indications and regions. The companies have agreed to provide mutual drug supply and other support.
“We hope to understand and develop innovative combination therapies that may bring meaningful treatments to cancer patients around the world. Through this collaboration we plan to further evaluate tislelizumab in combination with oral VEGFR inhibitors to target a variety of solid tumor cancers,” said Lai Wang of BeiGene.
Each of these three compounds are currently in late-stage global clinical development across many countries outside of China. Tislelizumab and fruquintinib have both been approved by the China National Medical Products Administration which is also currently reviewing the New Drug Application for surufatinib that was submitted late last year.
Both companies currently score a bullish Strong Buy Street consensus. For instance, in the last three months, six analysts have published buy ratings on BeiGene vs 1 hold rating. With shares down 4% year-to-date, the average analyst price target indicates upside potential of 19%. (See BeiGene stock analysis on TipRanks).
Maxim Group’s Jason McCarthy has a buy rating on BGNE with a $190 price target. He notes that Tislelizumab is currently being evaluated in 15 registration-enabling clinical trials in China and globally (11 P3 and 4 pivotal P2 trials).
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