BeiGene ex­pands pipeline and hops on board a quest to cure hep B, ink­ing a $540M deal with a fel­low up­start biotech

Chi­na biotech BeiGene $BGNE is step­ping up with $40 mil­lion in cash and $500 mil­lion for a smor­gas­bord of mile­stones to part­ner with up­start As­sem­bly Bio­sciences on its pipeline of he­pati­tis B drugs.

BeiGene gains rights to de­vel­op and mar­ket 3 of As­sem­bly’s drugs — ABI-H0731, ABI-H2158 and ABI-H3733, aimed at at­tack­ing hep B at mul­ti­ple stages of de­vel­op­ment — for the greater Chi­na mar­ket. The lead drug is in Phase II, with pa­tients trans­fer­ring off ther­a­py while re­searchers gauge their vi­ro­log­i­cal re­sponse to ther­a­py. ABI-H2158 is al­so in Phase II, with H3733 in a Phase I.

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