AstraZeneca strengthens CSPC alliance with US$1.77B kidney disease drug discovery deal

CHINA—AstraZeneca has deepened its long-running partnership with CSPC Pharmaceutical by signing a new collaboration worth up to US$1.77 billion to discover and develop experimental medicines for kidney diseases.

The agreement includes an upfront payment of US$30 million to the Chinese drugmaker, alongside potential development milestone payments of US$540 million and up to US$1.2 billion in sales-related milestones.

Partnership targets next-generation kidney therapies

The new collaboration centres on CSPC’s small interfering RNA (siRNA) drug discovery platform and its proprietary delivery technology, which is designed to transport therapies beyond the liver.

Using these capabilities, the two companies will jointly discover and develop small nucleic acid drug candidates against two undisclosed kidney disease targets.

Although neither company has revealed the specific diseases they intend to pursue, CSPC said the selected targets could support treatments across several renal indications.

AstraZeneca will have the option to secure exclusive global rights to one preclinical candidate and exclusive rights outside China for the second.

CSPC will retain commercial rights to one of the programmes within China.

The partnership also combines CSPC’s artificial intelligence-powered molecular design platform with its automated high-throughput screening system.

According to the company, these technologies can rapidly identify promising nucleic acid candidates while improving their ability to reach organs outside the liver.

This addresses one of the major limitations of earlier nucleic acid therapies, which primarily accumulated in hepatic tissue.

Growing strategic relationship

The latest agreement further strengthens a relationship that has expanded steadily over the past three years.

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca paid US$1.2 billion upfront for ex-China rights to eight obesity and weight-management programmes from CSPC in a deal valued at up to US$18.5 billion, including milestone payments.

Before that, the companies signed a US$100 million upfront agreement in 2024 covering a preclinical cardiovascular therapy.

They followed it in 2025 with another collaboration that included an upfront payment of US$110 million and potential milestone payments of US$5.2 billion to develop oral medicines for chronic diseases using AI-driven drug discovery.

AstraZeneca strengthens pipeline

Kidney disease remains a major growth area for AstraZeneca.

Its SGLT2 inhibitor Farxiga generated US$2.2 billion in first-quarter sales, making it the company’s best-selling medicine.

The renal portfolio also includes Lokelma, a treatment for hyperkalaemia, which recorded first-quarter revenue of US$199 million.

The CSPC agreement comes as AstraZeneca continues to expand its presence in China.

Just days after announcing the kidney disease partnership, the company signed another licensing deal, worth up to US$4.83 billion, with a Sino Biopharmaceutical subsidiary to develop an experimental therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) outside China.

The agreement includes an upfront payment of US$200 million and reinforces AstraZeneca’s strategy to source innovative drug candidates from Chinese biotechnology companies.