{"text":[[{"start":8.88,"text":"Novo has agreed to pay up to $2.6bn to license an experimental weight-loss pill from China’s Hengrui Pharma as the Danish pharmaceuticals group seeks to shore up its position in the oral obesity drug market."}],[{"start":23.2,"text":"Novo said on Tuesday it was paying $300mn upfront to acquire the international rights for the pill, which could potentially be taken just once a week in contrast to Novo’s daily Wegovy tablet."}],[{"start":36.24,"text":"The deal is Novo’s second since its investor day last week, when its pledges to boost growth with new drugs fell flat. The group, which is trying to regain ground lost to rival Eli Lilly in the obesity drug market, announced on Thursday it had agreed to license a technology from Sweden’s Nanexa that could allow patients to take one weight-loss injection every few months."}],[{"start":57.16,"text":"Hengrui’s drug HRS-1596 is a dual-receptor agonist that has been cleared to begin early-stage clinical trials in China for type 2 diabetes and weight loss. Novo will acquire the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise the drug globally outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan."}],[{"start":78.16,"text":"The payments to Hengrui could be worth as much as $2.6bn if certain milestones were met, Novo said."}],[{"start":85.16,"text":"The deal is the Danish drugmaker’s latest attempt to boost its pipeline as it prepares to lose exclusivity for its blockbuster semaglutide-based treatments Wegovy and Ozempic in Europe and the US in the early 2030s."}],[{"start":99.04,"text":"It is also Novo’s latest effort to come up with obesity drugs that are more convenient for patients. Last week the company said its deal with Nanexa would give Novo the exclusive rights to its PharmaShell technology for certain obesity treatments, potentially allowing for weight-loss injections to be administered monthly or quarterly."}],[{"start":118.4,"text":"Analysts said a weekly pill would be a significant entrant to the market. “The program is too early to meaningfully impact the near-term outlook, but once-weekly oral dosing could provide some longer-term differentiation,” Evan Seigerman, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note."}],[{"start":135.88,"text":"“We appreciate Novo’s continued investment in oral therapies across obesity, diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases, particularly as convenience becomes an increasingly important point of differentiation.”"}],[{"start":145.64,"text":"Chief executive officer Mike Doustdar has pledged to sign new deals, telling investors last week that Novo would launch more than five new “multi-blockbuster” drugs by 2030 and branch out into new medicines as well as continue its focus on obesity."}],[{"start":160.68,"text":"The Hengrui deal is Novo’s latest partnership with a Chinese company and comes as western pharma groups are increasingly turning to licensing deals with Chinese biotechs to bolster their pipelines."}],[{"start":171.24,"text":"Novo agreed a deal last year worth up to $2bn with Chinese group United Biotechnology for the international rights to the weight-loss drug UBT251, which targets three different hormones to treat obesity, type 2 diabetes and other diseases."}],[{"start":186.44,"text":"Hengrui last year reached a deal worth up to $12bn with Britain’s GSK to develop up to 12 new drugs across several therapeutic areas including cancer."}],[{"start":200.52,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790676096_2315.mp3"}