AstraZeneca Pays Top Dollar for Early-Stage Obesity Drugs -- Market Talk

Dow Jones01-30

0909 GMT - AstraZeneca is paying a large amount to license a portfolio of early-stage experimental obesity and diabetes drugs from China's CSPC Pharmaceuticals, Macquarie's Candyce Gao and Tony Ren say in a research note. AstraZeneca said it would pay $1.2 billion upfront to CSPC, up to $3.5 billion if the drugs hit development and regulatory targets and make further payments linked to commercialization and sales goals. CSPC said the sales milestone payments could be valued at up to $13.8 billion. "The [$1.2 billion] upfront is particularly large for such early stage assets and the deal is rather front-end-loaded in our view," the analysts say. This marks CSPC's largest outlicensing deal and the largest in metabolic diseases for any Chinese pharma company, according to Macquarie. AstraZeneca shares trade broadly flat and CSPC closes 10% lower. (adria.calatayud@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2026 04:09 ET (09:09 GMT)

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