Boehringer Ingelheim is bidding adieu to its biologics contract manufacturing unit in China, inking a small-scale deal that gives local developer Raas Blood Products an established production base for its lead antibody drug candidate.
Shanghai-based Raas has revealed in a financial disclosure (Chinese) that it’s offering up to 20 million Chinese yuan (around $3 million) to secure a 100% stake in Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals in China. The business has a registered capital of $66 million, which represent the amount of investments that shareholders have put in a company.
A local unit of Germany-based pharma Boehringer Ingelheim, the BI biopharmaceuticals business was forged in 2014—also in Shanghai—to establish a production outpost in China, where it primarily engages in contract development and manufacturing of biologic drugs.
This work spans clinical production through to commercial projects, with the unit also providing services like chemistry, manufacturing and controls registration support, analytics development and validation to both global and domestic Chinese customers, Raas explained in its filing.
Boehringer Ingelheim did not immediately respond to Fierce’s request for comment on the sale or questions about the specific assets changing hands. In its filing, Raas said Boehringer intends to focus on other operations in China based on a strategic adjustment to its China business.
In its disclosure, Raas noted that the local unit possess a contract manufacturing facility with commercial production capacity at 6,000 liters.
The BI unit also holds a drug manufacturing license from the Shanghai Municipal Drug Administration, not to mention industrialization capabilities and a “mature and stable technical team.” The unit represents “a rare large-molecule biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform in China,” Raas said in its disclosure, according to a translation.
The Boehringer unit also makes for a prime acquisition target given that it suffered losses in 2024, 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, Raas added.
The unit specifically reported a net loss of 16.8 million yuan (around $2.5 million) in Q1 and a net loss of 259 million yuan ($38.5 million) for all of 2025, according to Raas, as the Boehringer subsidiary has struggled to compete with local CDMO players like WuXi Biologics.
As for Raas, the company has also struggled locally on declining blood products sales, according to local business news outlet Yicai.
With the acquisition, Raas now says it’s aiming to “address the shortcomings in the industrialization of innovative drugs,” with specific plans to use the BI unit’s capacity, quality control system and other resources to “ensure the timely and stable production and launch” of its lead asset SR604, plus other experimental medicines further down its pipeline.
SR604 is a monoclonal antibody candidate—the world’s first to target activated protein C for hemophilia, according to Raas—which the company is developing for both the A and B types of the genetic blood clotting disorder.
Raas noted that preparations for its phase 3 program for SR604 are now “progressing steadily,” and the company is also working to enroll a midstage study of the asset to treat bleeding episodes in patients with von Willebrand disease. Beyond that asset, Raas noted that it’s developing other candidates that focus primarily on coagulation and inflammatory diseases.
Boehringer is striking the relatively meager transaction as its overall business performs steadily, with the company recently reporting a 12% revenue jump in the first half of 2026, fueled in large part by U.S. demand for its diabetes and heart failure medicine Jardiance.