Innovent Biologics expand strategic partnership with Eli Lilly

By Mateen Dalal

Innovent Biologics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm dedicated to developing, commercializing, and manufacturing high-quality medicines, has extended its partnership with Eli Lilly and Company given to their shared commitment to bringing innovative medicines to benefit Chinese patients.

Under the agreement, Innovent will be procuring the exclusive commercialization rights to promote, import, distribute, market, and detail Retsevmo® (selpercatinib) and Cyramza® (ramucirumab) once it gets permitted in Mainland China.

It will also offer a right of negotiation to Innovent for possible future Pirtobrutinib commercialization in China.

For the unversed, Cyramza® (ramucirumab) is said to be the first U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) permitted treatment for patients with or metastatic gastric, advanced or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma with disease progression on or amid preceding chemotherapy.

In China, the combination of Cyramza® (ramucirumab) and paclitaxel was approved by NMPA (National Medical Products Administration) for treating patients with advanced or metastatic GEJ adenocarcinoma in March 2022, making it the very first drug authorized for the second-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer in China.

Gastric and liver cancer are the third and fifth most significant cancers in terms of prevalence, with a total of 900,000 new cases every year in China.

Mostly the patients encounter disease progression on or after the first-line treatment. There is an unmet medical requirement for new treatment options to enhance outcomes in these patients.

Under this agreement, Innovent will have exclusive commercialization rights for both Cyramza® and Retsevmo®, once authorized in China. Innovent will be entirely responsible for the importation, pricing, marketing, distribution, and detailing of the two products.

Innovent, with an additional extended oncology product portfolio, wishes to use its qualified oncology commercial team to influence its broad commercial coverage in pharmacies and hospitals at several tiers for making these innovative treatment options available to cancer patients in China.

Source credit - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/innovent-and-lilly-expand-strategic-partnership-in-oncology-301511330.html