BeiGene

BeiGene was founded in late 2010 by Xiaodong Wang, a Chinese-American scientist, and John V. Oyler,[1] an American entrepreneur who serves as the company's chief executive officer and chairman.[2] While many pharmaceutical drugs are manufactured in China, almost all early research and development for the drugs take place elsewhere. Wang and Oyler envisioned creating a biopharmaceutical company with strong ties to China to conduct research and development.[1][3] They chose to focus specifically on cancer treatment.[1]

By July 2011, they had recruited more than 60 Chinese scientists, including 20 who were US-educated. The founders provided part of the initial seed money and also received early backing from the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.[1] BeiGene established offices at the Zhongguancun Life Science Park near the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing,[4] where Wang serves as director.[1] In the United States, BeiGene has offices in California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.[5] The company has also established research locations in Australia and Europe.[6]

On February 2, 2016, BeiGene had its first initial public offering (IPO) of 6.6 million shares priced at $24[7] on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol BGNE.[8] The company raised $182 million[9] which it planned to use for further research.[8] The IPO, managed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, was backed by Hillhouse BGN Holdings and Baker Brothers, which together planned to purchase half the shares offered.[8] In a follow-on offering in March 2018, Beigene raised an additional $758 million.[8][10] In early August 2018, the company had another IPO when it offered a secondary listing of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising $903 million in the process.[11][12]

In July 2017, BeiGene entered into a partnership with Celgene to continue the development and commercialization of the cancer drug BGB-A317, also known as tislelizumab.[6][13] The company also acquired Celgene's operations in China as well as the rights to commercialize Abraxane, Revlimid and Vidaza, Celgene's approved drugs in China. As part of the deal, Celgene made a $150 million equity investment in BeiGene and acquired the rights for the sale of tislelizumab overseas for $263 million, with another $980 million plus royalties contingent on future sales.[14][15] However, a stipulation in the deal was that, if Celgene began working on a competitor drug, BeiGene could buy back the rights to tislelizumab. In January 2019, Celgene was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb, which is developing a similar cancer immunotherapy drug, Opdivo, allowing BeiGene to reacquire its overseas rights to tislelizumab.[6] Celgene returned the rights to the drug in June 2019 along with a payment of $150 million to conclude the deal.[16]

In late 2019, Amgen Inc. acquired 20.5% of BeiGene in a deal valued at $2.7 billion and gained a seat on the board of directors of BeiGene. In turn, BeiGene acquired the rights to commercialize three Amgen pharmaceuticals, Xgeva, Kyprolis, and Blincyto, as well as 20 others in development, investing $1.25 billion towards their research.[17][18][19]

In addition to clinical research, BeiGene's early business model involved obtaining the rights to experimental medicines shelved by other pharmaceutical companies and taking them through early clinical trials at the medical schools and hospitals located in China. Successful formulas would either be sold to or co-developed with larger drugmakers who could fund the costly late-stage trials.[1]

As the company grew, it began to expand its research and development in both directions, venturing into early drug formulation as well as late-stage clinical trials. One of BeiGene's late-stage therapies is tislelizumab (BGB-A317), a PD-1 antibody or PD-L1 inhibitor that prevents cancer tumors from evading the immune system.[13] Tislelizumab is being developed as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies for the treatment of several types of cancer.[20][21][22] In December 2019, it was approved by National Medical Products Administration in China for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.[23] In April 2020, tislelizumab was also approved in China to treat urothelial carcinoma.[24]

The company also developed zanubrutinib, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of cancer, from a formula created by BeiGene scientists in Beijing in 2012.[6][25] In November 2019, zanubrutinib became the first cancer drug developed in China to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; it received accelerated approval for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.[26][27] In June 2020, the drug was also approved in China for the treatment of MCL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.[28] BeiGene is also testing zanubrutinib as a possible treatment for the symptoms of COVID-19.[29]