China's BeiGene extends gains on launch of new firm with US biopharma

NEW YORK - BeiGene, a Chinese biotechnology company, saw its shares rise by 2.2 percent on Tuesday after it announced it co-founded a new firm with US biopharmaceutical firm SpringWorks, in efforts to combat cancer.

BeiGene's stock price in Nasdaq settled at $116.53 per share around market close. The Beijing-based company was valued at nearly $6.97 billion in market capitalization by Tuesday.

The new entity, named MapKure, is part of BeiGene's efforts to develop "innovative medicines for cancer patients with few or no treatment options," according to John Oyler, co-founder and chairman of BeiGene.

SpringWorks Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma founded in 2017, jointly owns MapKure with an equity investment.

MapKure plans to develop a new drug called BGB-3245 that could help inhibit certain forms of mutations that have been identified in some solid tumors as drivers of their cancerous growth, such as non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, thyroid cancer, and brain tumors, according to BeiGene's statement on Tuesday.

The selective small molecule inhibitor BGB-3245 was discovered by BeiGene's scientists and is currently in preclinical development.