BeiGene

BeiGene is a biotechnology company that specializes in the development of drugs for cancer treatment. Founded in Beijing in 2010 by Xiaodong Wang and chief executive officer John V. Oyler, the company has offices in China, the United States, Australia and Europe. BeiGene has developed several pharmaceuticals, including tislelizumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, and zanubrutinib, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor which became the first cancer drug developed in China to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when it received accelerated approval to treat mantle cell lymphoma in November 2019.

BeiGene
TypePublic
Founded2010 (2010) in Beijing, China
Founder
Websitebeigene.com

History

BeiGene was founded in late 2010 by Xiaodong Wang, a Chinese-American scientist, and John V. Oyler,[1] an American entrepreneur who serves as the company's chief executive officer and chairman.[2] While many pharmaceutical drugs are manufactured in China, almost all early research and development for the drugs take place elsewhere. Wang and Oyler envisioned creating a biopharmaceutical company with strong ties to China to conduct research and development.[1][3] They chose to focus specifically on cancer treatment.[1]

By July 2011, they had recruited more than 60 Chinese scientists, including 20 who were US-educated. The founders provided part of the initial seed money and also received early backing from the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.[1] BeiGene established offices at the Zhongguancun Life Science Park near the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing,[4] where Wang serves as director.[1] In the United States, BeiGene has offices in California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.[5] The company has also established research locations in Australia and Europe.[6]

On February 2, 2016, BeiGene had its first initial public offering (IPO) of 6.6 million shares priced at $24[7] on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol BGNE.[8] The company raised $182 million[9] which it planned to use for further research.[8] The IPO, managed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, was backed by Hillhouse BGN Holdings and Baker Brothers, which together planned to purchase half the shares offered.[8] In a follow-on offering in March 2018, Beigene raised an additional $758 million.[8][10] In early August 2018, the company had another IPO when it offered a secondary listing of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising $903 million in the process.[11][12]

In July 2017, BeiGene entered into a partnership with Celgene to continue the development and commercialization of the cancer drug BGB-A317, also known as tislelizumab.[6][13] The company also acquired Celgene's operations in China as well as the rights to commercialize Abraxane, Revlimid and Vidaza, Celgene's approved drugs in China. As part of the deal, Celgene made a $150 million equity investment in BeiGene and acquired the rights for the sale of tislelizumab overseas for $263 million, with another $980 million plus royalties contingent on future sales.[14][15] However, a stipulation in the deal was that, if Celgene began working on a competitor drug, BeiGene could buy back the rights to tislelizumab. In January 2019, Celgene was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb, which is developing a similar cancer immunotherapy drug, Opdivo, allowing BeiGene to reacquire its overseas rights to tislelizumab.[6] Celgene returned the rights to the drug in June 2019 along with a payment of $150 million to conclude the deal.[16]

In late 2019, Amgen Inc. acquired 20.5% of BeiGene in a deal valued at $2.7 billion and gained a seat on the board of directors of BeiGene. In turn, BeiGene acquired the rights to commercialize three Amgen pharmaceuticals, Xgeva, Kyprolis, and Blincyto, as well as 20 others in development, investing $1.25 billion towards their research.[17][18][19]

Research and development

In addition to clinical research, BeiGene's early business model involved obtaining the rights to experimental medicines shelved by other pharmaceutical companies and taking them through early clinical trials at the medical schools and hospitals located in China. Successful formulas would either be sold to or co-developed with larger drugmakers who could fund the costly late-stage trials.[1]

As the company grew, it began to expand its research and development in both directions, venturing into early drug formulation as well as late-stage clinical trials. One of BeiGene's late-stage therapies is tislelizumab (BGB-A317), a PD-1 antibody or PD-L1 inhibitor that prevents cancer tumors from evading the immune system.[13] Tislelizumab is being developed as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies for the treatment of several types of cancer.[20][21][22] In December 2019, it was approved by National Medical Products Administration in China for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.[23] In April 2020, tislelizumab was also approved in China to treat urothelial carcinoma.[24]

The company also developed zanubrutinib, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of cancer, from a formula created by BeiGene scientists in Beijing in 2012.[6][25] In November 2019, zanubrutinib became the first cancer drug developed in China to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; it received accelerated approval for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.[26][27] In June 2020, the drug was also approved in China for the treatment of MCL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.[28] BeiGene is also testing zanubrutinib as a possible treatment for the symptoms of COVID-19.[29]

References
  1. Loo, Daryl (2011-07-07). "BeiGene Brings Biotech to China". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  2. Lovelace, Berkeley, Jr (2019-10-31). "Amgen takes 20% stake in Chinese biotech BeiGene for $2.7 billion". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  3. Wright, Rob (2019-11-01). "How — And Why — John Oyler Built BeiGene". Life Science Leader. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  4. Yoffee, Lynn (2013-11-22). "John Oyler Aims To Build China's Genentech via Beigene". BioWorld. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  5. Rana, Preetika (2019-06-16). "China Biotechs Lure Industry Talent in the U.S." Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  6. Robbins, Rebecca (2019-02-13). "For BeiGene, Bristol-Celgene deal is poised to have big ripple effects". STAT. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  7. "BeiGene raises $158.4 mln in second U.S. IPO to price in 2016". Reuters. 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  8. Picker, Leslie (2016-02-03). "Editas Medicine and BeiGene Gain in Market Debuts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  9. Ng, Eric (2020-07-13). "BeiGene seals jumbo deal as US investors eye China's pharma market". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  10. Micklus, Amanda (2018-03-14). "Deals In Depth: January 2018". In Vivo. Informa. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  11. Lau, Fiona; Zhu, Julie (2018-08-02). "Chinese biotech BeiGene raises $903 million in HK's first secondary listing under new rules: sources". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  12. Mukherjee, Sy (2019-11-14). "China Biotech BeiGene Wins FDA Approval for Rare Blood Cancer Drug". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  13. Grover, Divya; Pratap, Bhanu (2017-07-05). "Celgene signs deal with BeiGene for tumor cancer treatment". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  14. Hancock, Tom; Xueqiao, Wang (2017-11-23). "Investors place bet on Chinese drugmakers". Financial Times. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  15. Feuerstein, Adam (2017-07-06). "Celgene now owns a checkpoint inhibitor for solid tumors, but is Beigene deal too late for cancer immunotherapy race?". STAT. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  16. Armstrong, Drew (2019-06-17). "Celgene Hands Cancer Drug Back to BeiGene, Plus $150 Million". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  17. Armstrong, Drew; Lyu, Dong (2019-10-31). "Amgen to Take $2.7 Billion Stake in BeiGene for China Growth". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  18. Beasley, Deena (2019-10-31). "Amgen takes 20.5% stake in BeiGene to sell cancer drugs in China". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  19. Prang, Allison; Hopkins, Jared S. (2019-10-31). "Amgen to Buy Stake in Chinese Cancer-Drugmaker BeiGene". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  20. Gormley, Brian (2018-09-06). "SpringWorks Joins BeiGene in Cancer Drug Collaboration". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  21. Kaplon, Hélène; Reichert, Janice M. (2019-02-17). "Antibodies to watch in 2019". mAbs. 11 (2): 219–238. doi:10.1080/19420862.2018.1556465. ISSN 1942-0862. PMC 6380461. PMID 30516432.
  22. Desai, Jayesh; Deva, Sanjeev; Lee, Jong Seok; Lin, Chia-Chi; Yen, Chia-Jui; Chao, Yee; Keam, Bhumsuk; Jameson, Michael; Hou, Ming-Mo; Kang, Yoon-Koo; Markman, Ben (June 2020). "Phase IA/IB study of single-agent tislelizumab, an investigational anti-PD-1 antibody, in solid tumors". Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 8 (1): e000453. doi:10.1136/jitc-2019-000453. ISSN 2051-1426. PMC 7295442. PMID 32540858.
  23. Lee, Sang Hyung; Lee, Hyun Tae; Lim, Heejin; Kim, Yujin; Park, Ui Beom; Heo, Yong-Seok (June 2020). "Crystal structure of PD-1 in complex with an antibody-drug tislelizumab used in tumor immune checkpoint therapy". Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 527 (1): 226–231. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.04.121.
  24. "BeiGene's Tislelizumab Approved by China's NMPA for PD-L1 Elevated Bladder Cancer". Precision Oncology News. 2020-04-13. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  25. Tarantelli, Chiara; Zhang, Lu; Curti, Elisabetta; Gaudio, Eugenio; Spriano, Filippo; Priebe, Valdemar; Cascione, Luciano; Arribas, Alberto J.; Zucca, Emanuele; Rossi, Davide; Stathis, Anastasios (July 2019). "The Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor zanubrutinib (BGB-3111) demonstrated synergies with other anti-lymphoma targeted agents". Haematologica. 104 (7): e307–e309. doi:10.3324/haematol.2018.214759. ISSN 0390-6078. PMC 6601092. PMID 30679329.
  26. "FDA Approves First Chinese Cancer Drug for U.S. Patient Use". Bloomberg. 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  27. Mathias, Tamara; Maddipatla, Manojna (2019-11-14). "China's BeiGene gets FDA approval for drug to treat rare form of lymphoma". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  28. Columbus, Gina (2020-06-03). "Zanubrutinib Gains Approval in China for Relapsed/Refractory CLL/SLL and MCL". OncLive. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  29. Vardi, Nathan (2020-04-16). "BeiGene Launching Brukinsa Trial In Later-Stage COVID-19 Patients". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
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