China’s I-Mab Seeks U.S. Partner for $2 Billion Cancer Drug Deal

(Bloomberg) -- I-Mab, a Chinese drug developer expanding in the U.S., is seeking a partner to jointly develop and sell a cancer drug in the world’s biggest economy, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Shanghai-based company is in talks with several large drugmakers over a potential deal that could be worth as much as $2 billion, including an upfront payment in cash and milestone payments based on performance, the people said. I-Mab would also get royalties from future sales of the drug, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

I-Mab aims to announce the partnership as early as the third quarter, after it completes a safety trial in the U.S. of its TJC4 treatment for patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphoma, the people said. The pharmaceutical firm plans to continue to develop the drug for the Chinese market, the people said.

No final decision has been made and details including timing and value of the deal could still change, the people said. A representative for I-Mab didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

I-Mab’s American depositary receipts rose as much as 5.1% in New York Tuesday. They were up less than 1% to $16.04 apiece at 12:37 p.m., giving the company a market value of about $928 million.

The company raised $104 million in a U.S. initial public offering in January, and is adding to its clinical team in Maryland as well as setting up a translational medicine group with a biomarker laboratory in the U.S., according to its website.

The therapy targets a “do-not-eat-me” signal that allows cancer cells to avoid being targeted by the patient’s own immune system. The drug blocks the signal, allowing the immune system to engulf and eradicate the malignant cells.

I-Mab’s potential deal could mirror some of the recent transactions in one of the hottest areas of pharmaceutical research: cancer treatments that harness the immune system to fight tumors. Earlier this month, Gilead Sciences Inc. completed the acquisition of immuno-oncology firm Forty Seven Inc. for about $4.9 billion.

In October, Amgen Inc. announced it would pay about $2.7 billion for a 20.5% stake in Chinese-American drug developer BeiGene Ltd. under a deal to develop and commercialize several of Amgen’s on-market and experimental cancer drugs in China.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April cleared I-Mab’s Investigational New Drug application to start clinical trials on a drug to treat Covid-19.

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