China’s Simcere Pharma grants AbbVie option to license its blood cancer drug candidate

(Reuters) – Simcere Pharmaceutical said on Monday its unit had granted U.S. drugmaker AbbVie the option to license its new blood cancer drug candidate outside China.

Under the deal, AbbVie will pay Simcere up to $1.06 billion, along with royalties on sales outside China. AbbVie would receive royalties on sales within China.

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)