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(Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis paid $650 million to snag an immuno-oncology drug from BeiGene Ltd, the latest Western drugmaker turning to China for must-have assets to fill holes in their cancer portfolios.
Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan's move, which could bring $1.55 billion in milestone payments and royalties for BeiGene, is also an about-face from comments two years ago when he raised data quality and innovation worries as barriers to Big Pharma's Chinese M&A dreams.
Novartis will co-develop BeiGene's tislelizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody similar to Keytruda from Merck and Opdivo from Bristol-Myers Squibb which help the immune system attack cancer and which have reaped billions of dollars in sales.