Aficamten

Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s leading drug developer and producer of one of the largest pipelines in the entire biopharma industry, has outlicensed another candidate to a US biotech. This time, Hengrui is teaming up with Braveheart Bio, a new company led by Travis Murdoch. Murdoch is the former CEO of HI-Bio , the immunology startup that Biogen bought for $1.15 billion last year. Hengrui will hand over most of the global rights to HRS-1893, a selective myosin inhibitor, in exchange for $65 million upfront, $10 million in the near term, and up to $1.01 billion in biobucks, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. The $65 million upfront is evenly split between cash and Braveheart shares. The investigational treatment is in Phase 3 development in China for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). Hengrui will keep the rights to HRS-1893 in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In an interview on Friday morning, Murdoch declined to share specifics of the development plan for HRS-1893 outside of China, but said more details will be released in the coming months. “This obviously is a cornerstone asset that really enables us to quickly become a late-stage development company, which is a great place to be right now in a therapeutic class that is growing,” Murdoch said. The deal earns Hengrui even more cash to bankroll its R&D efforts. The Shanghai-listed company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May to bring in another $1 billion-plus in funds. The move positions Braveheart squarely in contention with Cytokinetics, which is developing a similar type of drug called aficamten. Bristol Myers Squibb’s myosin inhibitor, marketed as Camzyos, has been approved for oHCM since 2022. Last weekend, Cytokinetics presented more data on the experimental medicine at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting. The company said it could change the standard of care for oHCM. Its stock price $CYTK climbed about 30% on the data earlier this week. “The Cyto data, from our point of view, really points to the notion that this class could be one that replaces beta blockade. The beta blockers have been part of standard of care for decades in this disease,” Murdoch said. The cardiac myosin inhibitor class could also apply to other areas, Murdoch said. He pointed to the Phase 3 trial of Camzyos in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or nHCM. Camzyos missed the mark on both primary endpoints, according to study results also presented last weekend at ESC. “Although those data were negative, some of the post-hoc analyses of those studies suggest actually that a better molecule could be successful there,” Murdoch said. “What we’re seeing is that the class is not only becoming more important within obstructive HCM, but is showing potential opportunity beyond. It’s incumbent on us at Braveheart to really optimize the development plan of this molecule, which we do think stacks up very favorably against the other” drugs in this class. Braveheart is keeping many details of its business quiet, including how much funding it has received so far. But the Bay Area company has likely corralled hefty commitments, given its investor base of Forbion and OrbiMed. These two veteran firms have repeatedly built biotechs revolving around assets from China. They previously teamed up on Verdiva Bio , an obesity drug developer that launched with $411 million in January. After publication, a Braveheart spokesperson noted that a16z Bio + Health is also an investor in the new company. The Braveheart deal marks at least the 35th China-to-West licensing pact of the year, according to an Endpoints News tally. Earlier this week, Raymond James bankers said the industry is already on pace to break last year’s record dealmaking between Chinese biotechs and Western drug developers. Hengrui, which is more than a half-century old, has been a frequent benefactor of US and European companies’ recent interest in the burgeoning drug R&D scene in China. It’s inked major deals this year, including another cardio-focused move with Merck and a whopping $12 billion biobuck-loaded pact with GSK. Editor’s note: This story was updated to include an interview with Braveheart Bio CEO Travis Murdoch and to note that a16z Bio + Health is an investor.

iStock, Rawpixel Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has been busy this year, signing a nearly $2 billion cardio contract with Merck in March and a 12-asset agreement with GSK in July worth up to $12 billion. China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has found another U.S. partnership, this time putting it in line for potentially more than $1 billion in total payments. Under the terms of the agreement, Hengrui will receive $65 million upfront from Delaware-based startup Braveheart Bio, plus up to $10 million in additional near-term payments once the transfer of certain technologies has been completed. Hengrui will also be eliglble for up to $1.013 billion in clinical and sales-related milestones, plus royalties on worldwide sales outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The centerpiece of Friday’s transaction is Hengrui’s selective myosin blocker HRS-1893, according to a regulatory filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The asset works by tamping down on the excessive contraction of heart muscles, in turn preventing hypertrophy in the left ventricle and improving heart muscle relaxation. HRS-1893 is currently in late-stage development for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). Braveheart and Hengrui will establish a joint steering committee—with each company nominating at most five members each—to oversee the global development and commercialization of the asset. With Friday’s agreement, Hengrui and Braveheart will take on Cytokinetics, which earlier this week achieved “ potentially best-in-class ” efficacy for its own cardiac myosin inhibitor aficamten, according to analysts at Truist Securities. Aficamten is also being developed for oHCM. An application is undergoing FDA review with a target action date of Sept. 26 . Braveheart represents Hengrui’s third major partnership this year. In March, the company received $200 million upfront from Merck for its investigational small-molecule lipoprotein(a) blocker HRS-5346. Under this agreement, Hengrui could also receive up to $1.77 billion in developmental, regulatory and commercial milestones, and royalties on top of those. Then, in July, Hengrui struck gold when it entered into a sprawling, 12-target pact with GSK. Leading this partnership is HRS-9821, a potentially best-in-class PDE3/4 inhibitor being tested for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. GSK paid $500 million upfront for this asset and for the opportunity to work on 11 more molecules with Hengrui. Future payments could reach up to $12 billion if all programs are optioned and all milestones are hit. Not much is known about Hengrui’s latest partner Braveheart. According to the regulatory filing on Friday, the startup was founded in 2024 and is led by Travis Murdoch, who was previously the CEO of HI-Bio before it was acquired by Biogen in May 2024 for $1.8 billion.