Zion Pharma Announces Global Agreement with Roche to Develop and Commercialize a Blood Brain Barrier Penetrant Oral HER2 Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor
9.5.2023 09:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Zion Pharma Limited, a Chinese biotechnology company focused on the development of brain-penetrable compounds, today announced that Roche has acquired the global rights to Zion’s lead program, ZN-A-1041. ZN-A-1041 is an orally administered selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting the Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2). ZN-A-1041 was designed to be blood-brain-barrier-penetrant, and has the potential to treat or prevent the onset of brain metastases in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Up to 50% of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer will develop brain metastasis during the course of the disease.
"Our agreement with Roche is the culmination of a tremendous team effort to deliver a potentially best-in-class therapy for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, particularly in the field of brain metastasis by virtue of the high blood-brain barrier permeability of this asset,” stated Zack Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Zion Pharma Limited. “Within five years, we have gone from company formation to first-in-human, to finding a partner in Roche, who has the resources and expertise to bring ZN-A-1041 to patients with few other therapeutic options,” Dr. Cheng continued.
Dr. Ding Zhou, Ph.D., CSO and Co-Founder of Zion Pharma Limited added, “We are pleased that Roche recognizes the potential of our asset for advancing the standard of care with regards to brain penetrable compounds in HER2-positive breast cancer.”
“We are excited to enter this partnership with Zion to further develop this innovative treatment option for people with HER2-positive breast cancer. This partnership builds on Roche’s legacy and expertise in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer and supports our pursuit of advancing science by combining external innovation with our in-house capabilities to address areas of high unmet patient needs,” said James Sabry, Global Head of Pharma Partnering.
After a transition period, Roche will be responsible for the further development, manufacturing, and commercialization of ZN-A-1041 globally. Zion will receive up to $70 million USD in upfront and near-term milestone payments pending achievement of certain milestone events. Zion will also be eligible for up to $610 million USD in additional payments following achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales-based milestone events by ZN-A-1041, as well as tiered royalties on sales.
About ZN-A-1041
ZN-A-1041 is an orally administered selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting the Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2). ZN-A-1041 was designed to be blood-brain-barrier-penetrant. The ongoing Phase 1 trial is being conducted at multiple sites in the U.S. and China. Additional details will be presented at the poster sessions during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in June 2023.
About Zion Pharma Limited
Zion Pharma is a private, clinical stage biotech company focused on the development of novel, small molecule, anti-tumoral agents. Founded in 2018, the company’s research headquarters are in Suzhou with additional research operations in Shanghai. The company is applying an innovative drug discovery approach, capitalizing on its DMPK expertise, to develop a pipeline of proprietary first-in-class/best-in-class compounds focused on therapeutic targets which drive tumor inhibition, including ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), Kirsten RAt Sarcoma (KRAS G12D) and SMARCA2 (BRM). Additional information about Zion Pharma is available at www.zionpharma.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230508005468/en/
Contact information
For media and partnership inquiries:
J. Michael French
SVP, Corporate Development
michael.french@zionpharma.com
+1.703.338.1972
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Roquette Brings Broad Portfolio of Excipient Solutions and Technical Expertise to AAPS PharmSci 360 202619.10.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Roquette, a global leader in plant-based ingredients, excipients and pharmaceutical solutions, will showcase its expansive portfolio of excipients, capsules, coatings, and biopharma solutions at AAPS PharmSci 360 2026. The conference and trade show will take place October 26-28 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. At Booth 1100 in the exhibit hall, Roquette’s Health & Pharma Solutions team will share their expertise across controlled-release technologies, hydroxypropyl beta-cyclodextrins, and sustainable formulation approaches, alongside a comprehensive portfolio of innovative solutions designed to address the evolving needs of pharmaceutical developers. “AAPS PharmSci 360 is a key opportunity to share our latest innovations, as well as highlight the breadth and depth of our scientific know-how that helps our customers solve complex formulation challenges,” said Peter Freed, Head of Technical Service & Development North America for Roquette’s Health & Pharma Solutions Business Unit. “From a
TestGorilla Survey: Recruiters are Faster with AI, but Not More Confident They’re Finding the Right Candidates19.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
AI made finding candidates faster for 72% of US recruiters over the last 12 months, according to TestGorilla's Recruiting in 2026 report, a survey of 1,428 US talent professionals. That speed, however, did not make them any more confident they had found the right person. In fact, of the recruiters that claim AI has made them faster, a third reported no gain in confidence at all, and 18% say their confidence in the match actually fell. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261019723138/en/ Recruiters report gains in speed from AI but not in certainty - TestGorilla’s Recruiting in the AI era 2026 report Recruiters are making up the difference themselves, by hand. Of those recruiters, 67% now spend an hour or more manually checking a single candidate before they trust that person can do the job, and nearly 30% spend two hours or more. That is time AI sourcing was supposed to save, not divert to new, extra work. "Recrui
Fortanix Announces Confidential AI for Enterprise Grade Kubernetes Workloads on CNCF® Confidential Containers (CoCo)19.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Fortanix® Inc., a global leader in data and AI security and pioneer of Confidential Computing, today announced support for CNCF Confidential Containers (CoCo) in Fortanix Confidential AI, enabling organizations to run AI workloads on Kubernetes inside hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), on confidential CPUs and GPUs. Enterprises keep the speed and agility of containers while protecting sensitive data, AI models, agents, and applications in use, so they can support their regulatory compliance efforts, scale AI across the business, and adopt frontier AI without compromising data privacy or intellectual property. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261019549928/en/ Confidential AI is a critical need in the industry today and a strong ecosystem of industry leaders is collaborating to advance open innovation and help enterprises securely adopt AI at scale. Regulated industries, including financial ser
Lenovo Earns Dual Leader Recognition for IT Sustainability in Latest ISG Provider Lens® Digital Sustainability Reports19.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Lenovo today announced that it has been named a Leader in the IT Solutions quadrant of the 2026 ISG Provider Lens® Digital Sustainability reports for both Europe and the United States, citing the company’s organization-wide approach to IT sustainability, which spans devices, infrastructure and services. The recognition comes as enterprises face the daunting challenge of scaling AI, balancing energy demand, and managing costs and environmental impact as infrastructure needs grow. ISG’s 2026 research estimates the global digital sustainability market to be $34.3 billion—up 12% from 2025. Europe represents 43% of that market, and the U.S. is 33%. Against the backdrop of growing year-over-year demand, Lenovo is broadening its approach to sustainability spanning circular procurement, AI-ready infrastructure, managed lifecycle services and carbon intelligence. Furthermore, Lenovo helps customers consider sustainability throughout the IT lifecycle, from procurement and deployment through oper
Rimini Street to Report Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results on October 29, 202619.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), the Software Support and Agentic AI ERP Company™ and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced it will report earnings after market close on October 29, 2026. The company will host a conference call and webcast on that date to discuss the third quarter 2026 results and the fourth quarter 2026 outlook at 5:00 p.m. Eastern / 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261019039553/en/ Rimini Street to Report Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results on October 29, 2026 A live webcast of the event will be available on Rimini Street’s Investor Relations site via the Rimini Street IR events link and directly via the webcast link. Dial-in participants can access the conference by dialing 1-800-836-8184. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year following the event. About Rimini Street, Inc. Rimini Street, Inc.
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom