Wantai’s Shares Sink After Chinese Vaccine Maker, UK’s GSK End HPV Jab Deal(Yicai) July 23 -- Shares of Wantai Biological Pharmacy plunged after the Chinese firm said it and UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline had decided to terminate their agreement to develop a nine-valent papillomavirus vaccine.
Wantai [SHA: 603392] finished 7.4 percent lower at CNY68.38 (USD9.40) a share today. The broader Shanghai market fell 1.7 percent.
After friendly talks, Wantai’s subsidiary Innovax Biotech and GSK agreed to discontinue development and commercialization cooperation on an HPV9-AS04 vaccine, which is in Phase II clinical trials, its Beijing-based parent company said late yesterday, citing a termination letter signed on July 20.
The deal’s end will not have a significant financial impact on Wantai, as it would incur insignificant additional costs or asset impairment, while the firm is also not required to pay back the two milestone payments worth a total of EUR22 million (USD24 million) made earlier, it said.
But Innovax will no longer receive additional milestone payments nor any possible sales commissions from GSK, Wantai added.
The move will free up Innovax to gain the full global commercialization rights to another HPV9-AS04 nine-valent papillomavirus vaccine with a different functional mechanism being developed with Xiamen University. That vaccine candidate is still in the application stage for clinical trials, Wantai noted.
Innovax and GSK signed the deal to jointly develop a new-generation HPV vaccine in September 2019. Under the agreement, Innovax was responsible for producing the vaccine antigen in China, while GSK was tasked with producing adjuvants and the finished vaccine product at oversea locations.
Innovax would have received a total of EUR134 million (USD145 million) in milestone payments from GSK if the partnership was a complete success and after their HPV9-AS04 jab was commercialized. It would also have received a share of the shot’s global sales revenue and the exclusive commercial rights in China and other potential countries, according to their 2019 agreement.
Editor: Futura Costaglione
