创新药突围战:从烧钱到兑现,还需过几道坎?
21st Century Business Herald
创新药突围战:从烧钱到兑现,还需过几道坎?
21st Century Business Herald
MoFo partner Chuan Sun was quoted in a recent article that discusses the booming innovative pharmaceutical industry in China—driven by policy support, industrial upgrades, and a recovery in financial performance—while also addressing the challenges faced by Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies in balancing investment and returns, securing financing, and navigating high R&D costs and global regulatory scrutiny.
How to secure an ideal price under the “reluctant” choice of a sale? According to Chuan, timing is key to achieving a favorable deal. “First, assess whether the product is of high quality—better products naturally command better prices. Second, evaluate how critical the product is to your business. If the company is in urgent need of funding or under pressure, the counterparty is more likely to push down the price during negotiations.”
“From a license-in perspective, investors are betting on where to allocate capital. For cash-strapped companies, a higher upfront payment is certainly preferable, as it helps secure immediate cash flow and ensures business continuity,” Chuan noted. “In essence, this is a negotiation game. If your company is short on funds and has only completed two rounds of financing, it’s unlikely that your project will attract significant attention from large multinational corporations, who assess thousands of projects annually. In such a situation, your eagerness to collaborate may in fact give them the upper hand to drive down the price.”
According to Chuan, each deal is unique and should be approached with a dynamic negotiation strategy—taking into account the company’s development stage, financial standing, the product’s quality, and the potential market size.
He also emphasized the importance of the BD team or intermediaries. If the BD personnel are overly commission-driven and rush to close the deal, it may result in commercial terms and upfront payments that fail to fully reflect the product’s value.
Read the full article.