Organon partners with Huya to develop Chinese biopharmaceuticals
Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel, has signed a collaboration agreement with HUYA Bioscience International to search for new, proprietary biopharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical compounds. As part of this collaboration, Organon has acquired an equity interest in HUYA, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing Chinese biopharmaceutical products.
Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel, has signed a collaboration agreement with HUYA Bioscience International to search for new, proprietary biopharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical compounds. As part of this collaboration, Organon has acquired an equity interest in HUYA, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing Chinese biopharmaceutical products.
HUYA, with offices in San Diego and Shanghai, identifies, licenses and develops Chinese drug candidates for commercialisation in Western markets. Under the collaboration agreement, HUYA will support Organon in the sourcing and development of pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical compounds in three specific therapeutic areas.
'This is an important strategic opportunity for Organon.' said David Nicholson, executive vice president research and development at Organon 'It is consistent with our research strategy to forge closer links with China's highly skilled and motivated scientists and significantly expands our own ongoing biotech research programmes and capabilities.'
Organon has entered into research collaborations with other leading Chinese biotech companies - Shanghai Genomics and HD Biosciences - in the last year.
'We believe this collaboration is the first one between a biopharmaceutical and biotech company to jointly identify and develop investigational drugs in China,' added Mireille Gingras, HUYA president and ceo. 'HUYA is well positioned, with our large network of life science contacts and operating history in China, to capitalise on the emerging biotech industry there.'
