AstraZeneca to license lung cancer drug from China's Dizal Pharmaceutical

SHANGHAI - AstraZeneca will pay Dizal Pharmaceutical $600 million upfront for global rights to one of its drugs for a type of lung cancer, the Chinese drugmaker said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange Tuesday.

• Sunvozertinib, also known as Zegfrovy, is approved in the U.S. and China as a locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer treatment for adults.

• About 77% of all lung cancers are non-small cell lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

• A study of a late-stage multinational clinical trial with 324 patients found its primary endpoint, progression-free survival, was a median of 10.3 months for patients on Sunvozertinib versus only 7.5 months for those on chemotherapy.

• Under the deal, Dizal is eligible to receive $600 million upfront and up to $900 million in additional payments tied to clinical development and sales-related milestones.

• AstraZeneca will gain global development and commercialization rights to Sunvozertinib.

• "With this agreement, we will bring a differentiated, oral targeted treatment to these patients with limited options across the globe," Dave Fredrickson, Executive Vice President, Oncology Haematology Business Unit at AstraZeneca said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

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This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 2:19 AM.