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AriBio is expanding its global business cooperation by securing a strategic investment from China's Fosun Pharma.

AriBio announced on July 3 that it has signed a strategic equity investment contract worth approximately 42.5 billion won ($27.5 million) with Fosun Pharma.

Under the agreement, Fosun Pharma will initially deploy a first-round investment of about 11.5 billion won ($7.5 million) into AriBio. Following this, it plans to proceed with a second-round equity investment worth 31 billion won ($20 million).

Fosun's strategic equity investment is a follow-up collaboration following the global exclusive licensing agreement worth approximately 7 trillion won signed in May for AR1001, an oral Alzheimer's disease treatment candidate.

Once this equity investment is fully completed, Fosun Pharma will become one of AriBio's top three major shareholders, alongside Sorux (which is pushing to change its name to AriBio Holdings) and Samjin Pharm.

AR1001 is an oral disease-modifying therapy (DMT) candidate for Alzheimer's disease, and it has currently completed patient dosing for its global Phase 3 clinical trials across 230 clinical sites in 13 countries.

With this investment as a catalyst, the two companies plan to further strengthen their collaborative system to jointly pursue all stages of development, approval, manufacturing, and commercialization. They also envision expanding their scope of cooperation beyond AR1001 to include follow-up novel drug candidates, immuno-oncology therapies, and vaccine platforms.

An official from AriBio stated, "This strategic equity investment is a result of Fosun Pharma highly evaluating not only the technological capability of AR1001 but also AriBio's future growth potential and corporate value." The official added, "As strategic partners, we will jointly push for global commercialization and do our best to provide new treatment opportunities to patients worldwide through the development of innovative novel drugs."

                                                                                                       Moon Jeong-woo