Next up for SHP2: partner buy-in

Just when it seemed that the SHP2 party was over Jacobio has bucked the trend, striking a licensing deal with Allist Pharmaceuticals covering its KRAS G12C inhibitor glecirasib and SHP2 inhibitor JAB-3312. The tie-up concerns China, and in up-front terms is worth $21m to Jacobio, in addition to $7m for R&D expenses incurred. Any revenues generated in China will result in Jacobio receiving a royalty rate described as double-digit for glecirasib and “up to 20%” for JAB-3312. Jacobio has pulled off this transaction shortly after taking the combo into a phase 3 lung cancer trial, which itself came after AbbVie terminated a global licensing deal covering Jacobio’s SHP2 inhibitor portfolio. To western investors Allist might be best known as the originator of the EGFR inhibitor furmonertinib, which is approved in China and licensed for the west to the recent Nasdaq entrant Arrivent BioPharma. Allist will now head up China development of what is almost the last KRAS G12C/SHP2 inhibitor combo standing; Genhouse Bio/Huya Bioscience’s garsorasib plus HBI-2376 is in phase 1/2.