Sanofi is betting $1.53 billion on Sino Biopharmaceutical’s new drug, securing global rights to a first-in-class JAK/ROCK inhibitor that could play dual roles in the French drugmaker’s hematology and immunology pipeline.
Sanofi will pay $135 million upfront to Sino Biopharm subsidiary Chiatai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (CTTQ) for exclusive rights to the Chinese company’s lovacitinib, according to a securities filing (PDF).
In addition to the initial payment, Sanofi has committed to up to $1.395 billion in potential development, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as up to double-digit tiered royalties based on net sales of lovacitinib.
This oral drug is the first inhibitor to target both JAK and ROCK and achieve anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects. In February, lovacitinib received approval from Chinese authorities for the first time to treat patients with a certain form of myelofibrosis, a rare blood cancer.
Although the initial approval focuses on myelofibrosis, Sanofi’s interest in the global market, or the drug’s “core value,” is driven by its potential in chronic graft-versus-host disease, Sino Biopharm said. For cGVHD, Phase 3 trials are already underway in China, and the FDA has cleared the drug to enter Phase 2 trials in the United States.
“Through this partnership, Sanofi, a global leader in vaccines, immunology and rare diseases, will leverage its global clinical and commercial infrastructure to unlock the international potential of lobasiditinib and maximize its long-term value,” Sino Biopharm said in a March 4 release (local time) provided to Fierce Pharma.
The deal represents a new addition to Sanofi’s specialty care business and is similar to the company’s recent acquisition of Blueprint Medicine. The 2025 deal, worth up to $9.5 billion, awarded Sanofi-Ivakit, a commercial product for a rare blood disease called systemic mastocytosis (SM), as well as next-generation SM candidates and an early-stage KIT inhibitor with potential for immunological indications.
By inhibiting the JAK1/2-STAT3/5 signaling pathway, lobadisitinib reduces inflammatory cytokines produced by bone marrow cells, reducing abnormal spleen enlargement and systemic inflammatory symptoms. At the same time, the drug inhibits ROCK1/2, which reduces overactivated helper T cells and enhances the function of regulatory T cells, further enhancing the anti-inflammatory effect, according to Sino Biopharm.
In a study conducted in China, lovacitinib showed better spleen response than hydroxyurea in patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis. At week 24, 58% of patients taking lovacitinib achieved at least a 35% reduction in spleen volume compared to baseline, compared with 23% in the hydroxyurea group. The proportion of patients with at least a 50% reduction in myelofibrosis total symptom score at week 24 was 61% in the Robadistini group compared to 46% in the comparison group.
Regarding the potential of drugs in cGVHD. Phase 1b/2a data published a year ago showed the best overall response rate of 86.4% in 44 patients taking two different doses of Robadishchini. The 12-month failure-free survival rate was 85.2%, which is “significantly superior to approved treatments,” Sino Biopharm noted.
From a safety perspective, the researchers reported that the drug was “well-tolerated” with no dose-limiting toxicities, and there were no drug-related adverse events that led to discontinuation.
For Sino Biopharm, the agreement with Sanofi marks the first significant innovative drug out-licensing project the company has signed with a major pharmaceutical company in recent years. More than a decade ago, CTTQ partnered with Johnson & Johnson on a treatment for hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is a disease area that is no longer of interest to U.S. drug companies.
Recently, Chinese pharmaceutical giants have been licensing out medicines to small Western biotech companies. In January, another Sino Biopharm subsidiary, Chia Tai Feng Hai Pharmaceutical, signed an agreement to transfer the rights outside China to an autoimmune drug candidate targeting miR-124 to AI-powered Formation Bio.
Lately, licensing drug projects from Chinese companies has become commonplace among Western biopharmaceutical companies. The number of cross-border licensing deals for drugs developed by Chinese biotech companies increased from 42 in 2022 to 93 in 2025, according to data from Evaluate.
As with the Formation Bio deal, most Chinese companies will carve out a license deal for themselves. However, as Sino Biopharm pointed out, the Sanofi deal is a rare case in which a long-established Chinese pharmaceutical company sells all rights to a late-stage or commercial asset.
Sino Biopharm, a major pharmaceutical company with sales of 17.6 billion Chinese yuan (approximately $2.6 billion) in the first half of 2025, is also quite active in acquisitions, as chairman Theresa Tse increasingly emphasizes innovative medicines. Last year, Sino Biopharm acquired Merck & Co.’s PD-1xVEGF partner LaNova Medicines in a deal worth up to $951 million. And in January, the company announced a deal to acquire Hangzhou Health and Medicine for 1.2 billion yuan (approximately $175 million) for its small interfering RNA platform.
