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In late October, HUTCHMED’s partner Takeda, will pay a milestone payment of $20m as the result of over $200m worth of sales for FRUZAQLA (fruquintinib), which treats metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC).

Takeda owns exclusive worldwide rights to FRUZAQLA, which include the rights to further manufacture, commercialise and develop the drug outside of mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong. The company delivered $203m in sales over the course of nine months, ending in September 2024. In these territories, fruquintinib is marketed by HUTCHMED and Eli Lilly and Company under the name ELUNATE. The drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2023, with approval from the European Commission (EC) seven months later in 2024. The drug is currently going through more international approvals, with Switzerland, Canada, Japan, the UK, Argentina and Singapore having already granted approvals from August to October.

“The achievement of $200m in sales is a testament to Takeda’s commercial strength in launching global brands, the clinical benefit of fruquintinib and the success of our partnership strategy for commercialising our medicines outside of China,” said Dr Weiguo Su, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer of HUTCHMED. “Receiving the $20m milestone payment will strengthen our balance sheet as we look to expand the use of fruquintinib into new indications, and highlights our strategy of global partnerships across our broad pipeline.”

CRC is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the US, with 840,000 new cases across the globe per annum.