Ropes & Gray Represents Simcere Pharmaceuticals Group in Strategic Collaboration on Multiple Bispecific Antibodies

In The News
January 17, 2018
Attorneys:

Ropes & Gray advised Nanjing, China-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Group in a strategic collaboration with Netherlands-based Merus to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize in China three bispecific antibodies using Merus’ Biclonics technology platform in immunooncology.

Under terms of the agreement, Merus will lead research and discovery while Simcere will be responsible for the Investigational New Drug enabling studies, clinical development, regulatory filings and commercialization of the products in China. Simcere will also be responsible for the IND studies and manufacturing of clinical trial materials in China, which will be used to assist regulatory filing and early stage clinical development for Merus in the rest of the world.

Merus will be eligible to receive upfront, milestone payments contingent upon Simcere achieving certain specified development and commercial goals, and tiered royalty payments on sales in China from Simcere. Simcere will be eligible to receive tiered royalty payments on sales outside of China from Merus. Additional financial details were not disclosed.

The Ropes & Gray team included intellectual property transactions and managing partner Geoffrey Lin  (Shanghai).