GSK announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with Hong Kong-listed Sino Biopharmaceutical to strengthen its presence in mainland China’s growing pharmaceutical market and commercialize its experimental chronic hepatitis B treatment, bepirovirsen, in the country.
Under the deal, Sino Biopharmaceutical’s subsidiary, Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical, will purchase bepirovirsen from GSK for supply over an initial period of five and a half years, while the British drugmaker will continue to record the medicine’s sales.
GSK did not reveal the financial details of its agreement with Sino Biopharmaceutical, but the company has been actively expanding its partnerships in China, one of the world’s fastest-growing pharmaceutical markets. In 2024, GSK signed a $500 million drug development partnership with Hengrui Pharma, and in 2023 the company also entered into a collaboration with Hansoh Pharma focused on multiple cancer treatments.
Bepirovirsen plays an important role in GSK’s long-term strategy to expand its medicines business beyond HIV treatments and vaccines. The company aims to achieve annual revenue of more than £40 billion ($54.4 billion) by 2031 as part of its broader growth plans.
GSK expects to launch bepirovirsen in selected markets later this year, while a regulatory decision for the treatment in China is anticipated in 2027. The company projects that the drug could eventually generate peak annual sales exceeding £2 billion.
Hepatitis B, or liver inflammation caused by the ‘B’ strain of the hepatitis virus, is estimated to affect 75 million people in China and more than 250 million people worldwide, GSK said.
Bepirovirsen is designed to fight Hepatitis B in three different ways: by preventing the virus from replicating its DNA, reducing the level of hepatitis B surface antigen in the bloodstream, and strengthening the body’s immune response to help maintain longer-term control of the disease.
According to the World Health Organization, more than one million people died from chronic hepatitis B-related complications in 2022.
