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
Royal London Asset Management Expands Relationship with SS&C to Service New Australian Funds27.5.2026 01:00:00 EEST | Press release
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSNC) today announced that Royal London Asset Management, a leading U.K. fund management company, has extended its relationship with SS&C. SS&C Global Investor & Distribution Solutions will provide fund administration and unit registry services for its new range of Australian active funds, including: Royal London Global Equity Diversified Fund Royal London Global Equity Enhanced Fund Royal London Global Equity Select Fund Royal London Short Duration Global High Yield Bond Fund RLAM is part of Royal London, the U.K.’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company. SS&C services approximately £72bn in assets under management across its U.K. fund range. Equity Trustees will serve as the Responsible Entity for RLAM’s new funds, which have launched with around AUD $1 billion in AUM. The unit trusts are structured as feeder funds, providing investors with indirect exposure to RLAM’s range of Dublin-domiciled Undertakings for Collective Investm
SLB Announces Date for Second-Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call26.5.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
SLB (NYSE: SLB) will hold a conference call on July 24, 2026, to discuss the results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2026. The conference call is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern time and a press release regarding the results will be issued at 7:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. To access the conference call, listeners should contact the Conference Call Operator at +1 (800) 715-9871 within North America or +1 (646) 307-1963 outside of North America approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the call and the access code is 3440360. A webcast of the conference call will be broadcast simultaneously at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/157027565 on a listen-only basis. Listeners should log in 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to test their browsers and register for the webcast. Following the end of the conference call, a replay will be available at www.slb.com/irwebcast until July 31, 2026, and can be accessed by dialing +1 (800) 770-2030 within North America or +1
Alipay Launches Next-Generation AI Payment Infrastructure, Debuts AI Wallet and Token Pay to Power Agentic Economy26.5.2026 18:20:00 EEST | Press release
Alipay today introduced its full-stack AI payment solution to partners across industries, ranging from AI companies to traditional retailers, and debuted two new services — the world’s first AI Wallet and Token Pay — to support the agentic economy’s rapid growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260526337824/en/ Alipay Unveils Next-generation AI Payment Infrastructure This launch extends Alipay's next-generation AI payment infrastructure, building on its consumer-facing product Alipay AI Pay and its business-facing AI payment processing product. “While the essence of commerce remains unchanged in the age of AI, the emergence of AI agents is reshaping everything. Drawing on 22 years of technological expertise and commercial know-how, Alipay is building a new generation of AI payment services to accelerate the growth of the agentic commerce ecosystem,” said Cyril Han, CEO of Ant Group. AI Wallet: Giving Users Vis
Daiichi Sankyo Europe Reaffirms Commitment to Patient-Centred Care with Extensive Data Showcase at EAS Congress 202626.5.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
Daiichi Sankyo Europe (DSE) is pleased to announce its extensive scientific presence at the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) Congress 2026. The presentation of 15 abstracts, comprising both clinical trial analyses and real-world evidence, underscores the company's sustained investment in cardiovascular health and its mission to care for every heartbeat. The 15-abstract showcase provides a comprehensive look at the role of bempedoic acid in lipid management. This includes post-hoc analyses in collaboration with Esperion Therapeutics from the Phase 3 CLEAR Outcomes trial exploring its impact on stroke and venous thromboembolism (VTE) incidence.5,6 There are also real-world findings from the MILOS registry, including a dedicated sub-analysis investigating the effectiveness of bempedoic acid across various background therapies.1,2,3,4 Results reinforce consistent effectiveness and safety profile of bempedoic acid across various EU countries and regardless of patients’ existing treatm
OpenRouter Raises $113 Million CapitalG-led Series B as Weekly Volume Explodes to 25T Tokens26.5.2026 16:15:00 EEST | Press release
OpenRouter, the AI model exchange, today announced a $113 million Series B led by Alphabet’s independent growth fund, CapitalG, with participation from investors including NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), ServiceNow Ventures, MongoDB Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Databricks Ventures, alongside existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. OpenRouter’s volume has surged to 25 trillion tokens per week (100 trillion tokens per month), representing a 5X increase from the 5 trillion tokens processed per week just six months ago. The explosion in token demand illustrates how quickly enterprises are deploying agents and scaling AI across multiple models and providers. OpenRouter’s infrastructure manages and optimizes inference and provides access to 400+ models across leading AI providers, including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, xAI, and DeepSeek, among others. The platform is used by over 8 million global users, including AI-native startups and large enterprises,
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