Venture capital firm Aditum Bio is going all-out for a new collaboration with Fosun Pharma, launching a subsidiary with the sole purpose of developing novel therapies in tandem with the Shanghai-based drugmaker.
Under the terms of the five-year deal (PDF, Chinese), Aditum’s nascent biotech Clavis Bio will nominate targets—at most four a year—which Clavis and Fosun will then develop preclinical drug candidates for, Fosun said in a Dec. 18 release.
From there, Fosun will hold the exclusive right to develop, manufacture and commercialize each partnered asset in China, Hong Kong and Macau, while Clavis will have the option to license the programs in the rest of the world.
Should Clavis elect to exercise its option, Fosun could net up to $362.50 million in option exercise fees, as well as development, registration and sales milestones, along with royalties from any potential sales, according to the release.
For any program Clavis chooses to advance, Aditum will launch another new subsidiary to take on development. As part of the deal, Fosun will get a minority stake in any of these freshly formed companies.
Aditum formed Clavis in March specifically for this collaboration with Fosun, according to the release. The partners did not disclose which therapeutic areas the partnership focuses on.
“Leveraging our complementary strengths in preclinical development and clinical operation capability, this collaboration will further enrich Fosun Pharma’s R&D pipeline.” Chen Yuqing, Fosun Pharma’s chair, said in the release. “The flexible collaboration model enables us to convert early-stage, high-potential targets into clinical stage more efficiently, with the aim of accelerating to bring more innovative therapies to patients worldwide.”
Fosun had a flurry of dealmaking this August, signing three inflammatory disease pacts in a span of three weeks. The pharma picked up China rights to a TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor from Accro Bioscience, following the outlicensing of a drug candidate to Sitala Bio and the offloading of ex-China rights for an investigational DPP-1 inhibitor to Expedition Therapeutics.
Aditum, meanwhile, has been on dizzying spree of spinouts. In addition to Clavis Bio and any other subsidiaries that may arise from it, the VC outfit partnered up with China-based Mabwell Bioscience to launch a new cardiovascular disease biotech in September. The firm was co-founded in 2019 by former Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez, who now serves as the VC’s managing director.
China is a common source of innovation for Aditum. About a year ago, in November 2024, Aditum hatched Oblenio Bio through a team-up with China-based Leads Biolabs. Oblenio’s focus is a tri-specific T-cell engager antibody for autoimmune diseases.