​Athenex announced the completion and execution of a definitive agreement with the Banan District in Chongqing, China to construct two separate pharmaceutical manufacturing plants on Banan sites already identified and selected by Athenex management. Under the terms of the agreement, Banan will provide the funding for the land and construction of the manufacturing plants according to Athenex specifications, and Athenex will equip the facilities.

Mr. Flint Besecker, Athenex Board Director and Chief Operating Officer commented, “This agreement accomplishes several important goals for the company. First, it allows us to materially expand our existing high potency oncology active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing capacity. The existing plant from our recent acquisition of Polymed/Taihao located in Chongqing, China is capacity constrained. The new API plant will be approximately five times larger and add significant capacity. This expansion is an important next step in assembling a world-class global pharmaceutical supply chain in the oncology area and will complement our U.S. based manufacturing strategy. Secondly, the government collaboration allows us to execute on a key aspect of our game plan delivering innovative oncology drugs into an important global market like China.”

Dr. Manson Fok, Athenex board director, physician, and health policy advisor in China added, “This partnership will provide patients in China an opportunity to access very important and innovative oncology pharmaceutical products. China is expected to have the fastest growing healthcare market in the world and cancer impacts so many patients in the country.”

The agreement also establishes a framework for a translational medicine collaboration with an existing Athenex R&D partner in Hong Kong, the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. Athenex previously announced the in-licensing of the global rights to an innovative oral absorption technology from Polytechnic University in February 2015.