AstraZeneca Pays $200 Mil. Upfront to License Chinese COPD Drug
By Reuters | 07 Jul, 2026

A subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical developed the experimental drug TQC3721 to treat COPD, a progressive lung disease that obstructs airflow and was the third-leading cause of death worldwide with 3.4 million fatalities in 2023.

AstraZeneca will license a subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical's experimental chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drug TQC3721 and pay $200 million upfront, the Chinese drugmaker said Wednesday.

COPD, a progressive lung disease that obstructs airflow and makes breathing difficult, was the third-leading cause of death worldwide with 3.4 million fatalities in 2023, according to the World Health Organization.

While major drugmakers that dominate the segment include AstraZeneca, GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim, a study of a phase II clinical trial for TQC3721 in China showed that it was "novel" and "significantly improved lung function and symptoms" when compared with a placebo.

The new partnership will "leverage AstraZeneca's deep clinical development experience and respiratory expertise," Sino Biopharmaceutical said in a filing to Hong Kong's stock exchange.

The agreement covers the development, manufacture and commercialization of TQC3721, in addition to rights for "certain future development programmes" that the filing did not detail. AstraZeneca has been granted a global license for TQC3721 outside of China.

The deal is the Sino Biopharmaceutical subsidiary's second out-licensing transaction with a multinational pharmaceutical company this year. In March, it granted rights to Sanofi for the blood cancer drug rovadicitinib.

A spokesperson for AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why it was licensing rights to TQC3721, or on the timelines for any future global studies.

AstraZeneca in April said its own experimental treatment tozorakimab showed a "meaningful reduction" in moderate-to-severe flare-ups of COPD in a late-stage trial, building on positive data from the month before.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; additional reporting from Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Thomas Derpinghaus)