FibroGen has sold its China subsidiary to AstraZeneca for approximately $160 million.
The sale will serve to strengthen FibroGen’s financial position, extending the company’s cash runway into 2027, and enabling the advancement of the clinical development program for FibroGen’s first-in-class CD46-targeting antibody drug conjugate, FG-3246, and its companion PET imaging agent.
AstraZeneca and FibroGen have been partners on the development of roxadustat, an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitor, since 2013. Upon closing of the deal, AstraZeneca will obtain all rights to roxadustat, branded Evrenzo, in China. The drug was approved in China in 2019 for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease, with a pending regulatory decision for chemotherapy-induced anemia.
FibroGen will maintain its rights to roxadustat in the U.S., where it is not yet approved, and in all markets not licensed to Astellas.
Under the terms of the deal, FibroGen will receive $85 million plus FibroGen net cash held in China at closing, currently estimated to be approximately $75 million, totaling approximately $160 million. The transaction is expected to close by mid-2025.