A year ago, AstraZeneca walked away from the bulk of its roxadustat partnership with FibroGen—though the pharma at the time decided to retain its relationship with the biotech’s China operations.
AstraZeneca plunked down $160 million on Thursday to acquire FibroGen’s China business, a likely sign that the pharma will continue to pump money into China despite ongoing government investigations.
Per Thursday’s agreement, AstraZeneca will pay $85 million to match the enterprise value of FibroGen China, plus an additional $75 million, corresponding to the net cash held by the Chinese business. The companies expect the deal to close by mid-2025, subject to regulatory clearances in China and other customary conditions.
The acquisition will give AstraZeneca full rights over roxadustat in China, where it is approved for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is undergoing regulatory review for chemotherapy-induced anemia. For FibroGen, the transaction will give it more cash, which will allow it to repay an outstanding term loan facility to Morgan Stanley Tactical Value, in turn extending the biotech’s runway into 2027.
The move to buy FibroGen’s Chinese business—and local rights to roxadustat—comes nearly a year to the day since AstraZeneca shut down the bulk of its U.S. partnership with FibroGen. At the time, however, the two companies retained relationships in South Korea and in China, where roxadustat is the leading the CKD anemia market.
In the U.S., on the other hand, roxadustat has been having a rough run. In August 2021, the FDA declined to approve the drug for anemia in CKD, pointing to the need for an additional study.
AstraZeneca and FibroGen—at the time still working together on roxadustat’s clinical studies in the U.S.—ran the Phase III MATTERHORN study to test roxadustat for anemia in patients with transfusion-dependent lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. Results in May 2023, however, showed that roxadustat was unable to significantly improve transfusion independence versus placebo.
FibroGen will retain U.S. rights over roxadustat and plans to push through with the molecule’s development for anemia in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome.
The FibroGen deal also signals AstraZeneca’s continued investment in China, where it is currently facing several government probes. In October 2024, the pharma announced that former president of AstraZeneca China Leon Wang was being investigated by authorities, though the company at the time did not explicitly say why.
A week later, local financial publication Yicai reported that several other top AstraZeneca executives in China were embroiled in the investigation for insurance fraud. In December 2024, the pharma was forced to name Iskra Reic, executive vice president for its international operations, as the interim China head while Wang undergoes investigation.
Earlier this month, the pharma also revealed during its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial report that it could have potentially missed $900,000 in unpaid importation taxes. That could lead to a fine of up to five times the avoided tax, or around $4.5 million.
