CStone Pharmaceuticals and Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals announced a strategic partnership and exclusive licensing agreement on anti-CTLA-4 mAb CS1002 in the Greater China region. This strategic partnership marks another milestone in CStone's mission to introduce innovative oncology therapies in China after the commercial launch of two first-in-class drugs this year. Under the terms of the agreement, CStone will be eligible for an upfront payment and potential milestone payments up to $200 Mn in addition to double-digit royalties. Hengrui will obtain the exclusive rights for research, development, registration, manufacturing, and commercialization of anti-CTLA-4 mAb CS1002 in Greater China. CStone will retain the rights to develop and commercialize of CS1002 outside of Greater China. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is one of the few clinically validated targets for IO combination therapies. There is only one anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody approved globally, and it is also approved in China. According to EvaluatePharma, the annual global revenue of the product in 2020 was approximately $1.69 billion. CS1002 is an investigational anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody being developed by CStone currently in clinical development. Results from the ongoing Ph1a/1b study showed that differentiated dosing schedules of CS1002 in combination with CS1003 (anti-PD-1) were well-tolerated and demonstrated very encouraging efficacy in anti-PD-(L)1-refractory melanoma, anti-PD-(L)1-refractory hepatocellular carcinoma, and anti-PD-(L)1-na?ve, pretreated microsatellite instability high/deficient mismatch repair (MSI-H/dMMR) tumors.