Organon Biosciences in biopharma development deal with China's Huya Bioscience

The human health care business unit of the Netherland's Akzo Nobel NV, Organon Biosciences has signed a collaboration agreement with Huya Bioscience International, LLC, (Huya) to search for new, proprietary biopharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical compounds.

As part of this collaboration, Organon has acquired an equity interest in Huya, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing Chinese biopharmaceutical products. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The announcement follows other research collaborations that Organon has entered into with other leading Chinese biotech companies Shanghai Genomics and HD Biosciences in the last year.

Huya, with offices in San Diego and Shanghai, identifies, licenses and develops Chinese drug candidates for commercialisation in Western markets. Under the collaboration agreement, Huya will support Organon in the sourcing and development of pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical compounds in three specific therapeutic areas.

"This is an important strategic opportunity for Organon. It is consistent with our research strategy to forge closer links with China's highly skilled and motivated scientists and significantly expands our own ongoing biotech research programs and capabilities," said David Nicholson, executive vice president Research and Development at Organon "We are very excited by this investment and the prospect of closely collaborating with HUYA."

Mireille Gingras, president and CEO of Huya added, "We are delighted to share the Organon knowledge and harness their extensive expertise in drug development in three specific therapeutic areas. We believe this collaboration is the first one between a biopharmaceutical and biotech company to jointly identify and develop investigational drugs in China. HUYA is highly experienced and uniquely well positioned with our large network of life science contacts and operating history in China to capitalize on the emerging biotech industry there."