On Feb 15, Sanofi, a global healthcare giant and JHL Biotech, a biopharmaceutical company from the Biolake, Optics Valley, officially launched a strategic alliance in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley). According to the agreement, Sanofi will invest $80 million to become a shareholder of JHL Biotech. They have already applied for clinical trials in China of their first jointly developed bio-drugs.

Sanofi and JHL Biotech signed a strategic cooperation agreement in December 2016 and are devoted to R&D of innovative biological therapies and business cooperation in China. Their first jointly developed bio-drugs in China, called JHL1101 (rituximab analogue), are used in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). The drugs were given clinical trial approval in Europe (Britain) in Feb 2016. 

The two companies submitted clinical trial applications for NHL to the China Food and Drug Administration this month. They hope to introduce innovative biological therapies and world-class high quality drugs into China as soon as possible to meet patients’ treatment needs.

They will work together in liver disease, diabetes, tumor and cardiovascular disease and construct a platform for bio-drug R&D, registration and commercialization.

Sanofi is a leading global healthcare company listed in Paris and New York and committed to research, development and promotion of innovative therapeutics. It entered China in 1982. Its business covers prescription drugs, vaccines, non-prescription drugs, rare diseases (Genzyme) and animal healthcare (Merial).

JHL biotech is devoted to research and development of new protein pharmaceuticals and similar bio-drugs. It has built many world-class production bases that comply with US, EU and ICH cGMP regulations and guidelines. The research center located in Optics Valley is responsible for production of commercialized biopharmaceuticals.