Amgen is acquiring a premium stake in BeiGene (BGNE), one of the largest cancer-focused drug companies in China, for $2.7 billion as part of a broad commercial and drug development partnership, both companies announced Thursday.
The California-based biotech joins a long list of American firms seeking to tap the pharmaceutical market in China, which is said to have as many cancer patients as the U.S. and Europe combined.
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Both China and the US are global powerhouse entities in R & D. Collaboration and joining forces makes sense, when paranoidal “national security” on either side finally abates. For cancer research and drug development this is a boon. Of course enormous profit increase potential for Amgen matters. And China, swimming in money from ever increasing drug production (among others), is buying up mines, expanding its economic powers (the Silk Road etc). It is very capitalistic but this is shielded under the guise of government-enforced communism. How far will this stretch?
An American-like headline in China:
American company, with ties to the government, infiltrate Chinese Biotech to steal intellectual property