Chinese biopharmaceutical company responds to rumors of "returned goods": Merck's cooperation with Lee Xin is progressing positively and proceeding normally and orderly.

Chinese biopharmaceutical company announced on July 15th that it will acquire 95.09% of the shares of Shanghai Lixin Pharmaceutical for a total price of approximately 500 million US dollars. In addition to the 4.91% of the shares acquired during Lixin's C-round financing, after the transaction is completed, Lixin Pharmaceutical will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese biopharmaceutical company. There are market rumors that the authorization agreement reached by Lixin and Merck for the PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody LM-299 may have been "returned." In response to this, Chinese biopharmaceutical company stated that the cooperation between Lixin and Merck is progressing normally and orderly according to the licensing agreement. "Currently, we are advancing technology transfer. According to the terms of the transaction contract, after the completion of technology transfer, Lixin will receive a milestone payment of 300 million US dollars for the technology transfer. According to Merck's previous press release, it is expected that this technology transfer will be completed by 2025," said Chinese biopharmaceutical company.