Apollo on a different planet with potential £1bn China alliance

Sunshine Lake is to receive $12m upfront and up to $926m in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments subject to hitting sales targets across major markets.

It also stands to receive tiered royalties ranging from high single to low double digits on net sales.

Sunshine Lake is a member of HEC Group, one of the top 500 private business entities in China: As part of the deal it will retain development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights in China but has granted Apollo development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights in the rest of the world for all current and future therapeutic indications.

Apollo, based in Station Road, Cambridge is building a large and diversified pipeline of novel drug candidates and APL-18881 (HEC88473) will be its fifth programme in clinical development.

As well as discovering and developing new drugs based on breakthroughs in basic science made at its partner universities, Apollo also in-licenses or acquires clinical-stage assets based on strict selection criteria including the exploitation of unique insights and synergies arising from its discovery, human genetics, and other preclinical activities.

APL-18881 has an open US Investigational New Drug Application and Apollo will be clinically developing the molecule in a range of potential indications in the cardiometabolic, liver and related disease areas that are not currently disclosed.

Sunshine Lake has long been dedicated to innovative drug development in anti-infection, oncology, and chronic metabolic disease areas, establishing a robust pipeline with multiple programs in mid-to-late clinical stages.

While mainly focusing on domestic development and commercialisation within China for novel drugs, Sunshine Lake is also actively exploring opportunities to expand into international markets.

The collaboration with Apollo marks Sunshine Lake’s first international partnership for novel biologics, further emphasising its commitment to global expansion efforts.

Dr Richard Mason, Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Therapeutics, says: “This transaction further delivers on our strategy to generate a large and diversified clinical portfolio of programs in major commercial indications with real unmet medical need.

“The development of APL-18881 (HEC88473) completed by Sunshine Lake to date strongly suggests that this novel FGF21 and GLP-1 dual receptor agonist has clinical potential in multiple disease areas where these individual mechanisms have already been demonstrated to show robust clinical efficacy and where we anticipate synergies could occur between the two distinct mechanisms of action.

“We are excited to partner with the world-class team and exceptional R & D capabilities at Sunshine Lake who will develop APL-18881 across a range of indications in China whilst we focus on development ex-China.”

Dr Zhang Yingjun, Chairman of the Board of Sunshine Lake Pharma, added: “We are thrilled about this collaboration and are looking forward to working closely with Apollo on this exciting program. HEC88473 is one of Sunshine Lake’s very first novel biologics programs, showcasing strong therapeutic potential with its differentiated mechanism of action.

“Apollo’s vision and clinical expertise will undoubtedly help accelerate the delivery of this novel treatment to patients.”