Everest to bring Canadian biotech's potential COVID shots to China, other markets

Everest Medicines

13/09/2021 10:00

BEIJING, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai-based Everest
Medicines  1952.HK  said it signed a licence agreement with
Providence Therapeutics to make and sell the Canadian
biotechnology company's potential mRNA COVID vaccines in some
Asian countries including China.
    Interim data from an early-stage human trial outside China
has showed Providence's shot PTX-COVID19-B was safe and produced
strong antibody responses, Everest said in a statement on
Monday.
    Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines prompt the body to make a
protein that is part of the virus, triggering an immune
response. Companies including Pfizer  PFE.N  and BioNTech
 BNTX.O , and Moderna  MRNA.O  use mRNA technology in their
COVID-19 shots.
    China is yet to approve an mRNA COVID shot. It has fully
vaccinated nearly 70% of its 1.4 billion population as of Sept.
6, using shots mainly from Sinopharm and Sinovac.
    At least four potential mRNA COVID shots are already being
tested in China, including three domestically developed
candidates and one from BioNTech and its local partner Shanghai
Fosun Pharmaceutical Groups  600196.SS   2196.HK .
    Providence will be paid $50 million in cash upfront for
PTX-COVID19-B and other COVID mRNA vaccine candidates targeting
specific variants that haven't yet entered clinical trials. It
will also receive up to $100 million in profit-sharing
initially, and more in royalties later.
    Everest expects to complete building a factory by the end of
this year in eastern Zhejiang province to make the vaccine, with
an annual capacity to produce "a couple of hundred millions"
doses, Everest Chief Executive Kerry Blanchard told Reuters.
    The timeline for setting up production lines depended on
when the two companies complete the technology transfer, he
said.
    India's Biological E. announced in June a licencing deal
with Providence to manufacture its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the
South Asian nation.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2NJ2P3
    Apart from China, Everest has obtained rights for
Providence's COVID-19 vaccine candidates for more than 10
countries including Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, where
vaccination rates are low, and Singapore. 
    The two companies will also collaborate on two other
preventive or therapeutic products, likely in infectious disease
areas, and Everest will also use Providence's mRNA platform to
develop more treatments.
    For these additional collaborations Providence will get $50
million upfront in cash and up to $300 million in future
milestone payments in newly issued Everest stock.

 (Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sayantani
Ghosh and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
 ((hongkong.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; （8610）6627-1277;
Reuters Messaging: roxanne.liu@thomsonreuters.com))