Chinese consortium to acquire US biotech Ambrx

A consortium of Chinese pharmaceutical companies, private equity and financial services companies has signed an agreement to acquire Ambrx, an American biotechnology company headquartered in San Diego, CA, for an undisclosed sum.

The consortium consists of entities affiliated with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group, HOPU Investments, China Everbright's healthcare fund and WuXi PharmaTech.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

Ambrx is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing protein therapeutics known as bio-conjugates. The company claims its proprietary technology allows pharmaceutically active molecules to be attached to specific sites within proteins more precisely than previous generations of bio-conjugates and with a precision similar to that used to design small-molecule drugs. Ambrx has developed a pipeline of novel product candidates that include antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), bi- and multi-specific drug conjugates, and long-acting therapeutic proteins.

The company's most advanced internally developed product is ARX788, a site-specific ADC targeting Her2-positive breast cancer. Ambrx expects to begin clinical trials with this product this year.

In addition to its internal pipeline, Ambrx also has partnerships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Eli Lilly, and Agensys. The company's most advanced collaboration product candidate in human health is ARX618, a long-acting fibroblast growth factor 21 for type 2 diabetes, for which Bristol-Myers Squibb is conducting Phase II clinical trials in the US. To date, collaborations have provided Ambrx with more than US$200m in funding and have the potential to provide milestone payments and royalties on the sale of collaboration products.