German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim has entered into a licensing agreement with China’s Simcere Pharmaceutical Group to develop an experimental therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The partnership was disclosed in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing by Simcere on Tuesday, January 27, 2026.
Under the financial terms of the deal, Boehringer Ingelheim will provide the following payments:
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Upfront payment: 42 million euros.
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Contingent milestones: Up to 1.016 billion euros, linked to the successful achievement of developmental, regulatory, and commercial targets.
The spotlight of the deal is on SIM0709, a pre-clinical drug candidate engineered to block specific biological pathways involved in the initiation and progression of IBD.
The agreement grants Boehringer Ingelheim a global license for the development and commercialization of SIM0709, excluding the Greater China region. This transaction marks Simcere’s second major licensing success in the autoimmune field, further demonstrating the group’s growing research and development capabilities in global healthcare.