On the evening of January 6, Hong Kong-listed company Yiming Angke announced the termination of the license and cooperation agreement with Axion Bio, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Instil Bio, for two new drugs including a novel PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody, involving an amount exceeding $2 billion. The termination will not affect the $35 million down payment and milestone payments already received by Yiming Angke, and the company has recovered all previously authorized global development and commercialization rights.

Slow progress in clinical trials is the core trigger for the termination of the cooperation. Tian Wenzhi, founder of Yiming Angke, revealed that the progress of clinical trials in the U.S. has been slow, with only 3 patients enrolled so far, which is far below expectations. Affected by this news, Instil Bio plummeted more than 50% intraday on January 6 (U.S. Eastern Time), and finally closed down 45.81%.

Yiming Angke opened down more than 4% on January 7, then fluctuated and rebounded, and finally closed up 2.9%. It is understood that the cooperation between the two parties began in August 2024, and Instil Bio originally planned to pay a $50 million down payment and milestone payments exceeding $2 billion. Yiming Angke stated that it will re-promote product authorization to multinational pharmaceutical companies next, while operating the domestic market on its own. This incident highlights the high risks in the mid-to-late execution of biopharmaceutical BD transactions.