Deals and Financings

GSK acquired ex-Greater China rights to a second ADC from Jiangsu’s Hansoh Pharma in a $1.7 billion agreement (see story). GSK’s latest acquisition, HS-20093, is a B7-H3 targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with a topoisomerase inhibitor (TOPOi) payload that is in China Phase I/II trials for solid tumor cancers. Hansoh will receive $185 million upfront and up to $1.525 billion in milestones, plus royalties. Two months ago, GSK announced a $1.6 billion deal for Hansoh’s B7-H4 ADC that has started a Phase I China trial for gynecologic cancers. 

Boston’s Nona Biosciences out-licensed global rights for its MSLN-targeted ADC to Pfizer for $53 million in upfront and near-term payments and $1 billion in potential milestones (see story). It is also eligible for tiered royalties. HBM9033 targets MSLN, a tumor-associated antigen upregulated in mesothelioma, ovarian, lung, breast and pancreatic cancers. Nona is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harbour BioMed, a Boston-Rotterdam-Shanghai company that uses its Harbour Mice® antibody technology platform to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies. Nona’s candidate was developed in collaboration with MediLink Therapeutics, a Boston-Suzhou ADC biotech. 

Suzhou CStone Pharma sold China-Singapore commercialization rights for Tibsovo® (ivosidenib tablets) to Servier of Paris for $50 million (see story). CStone originally acquired the China rights to the drug from Agios Pharmaceuticals, which subsequently became part of Servier. Tibsovo is an oral targeted IDH1 inhibitor that is approved in China to treat adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia with an IDH1 mutation. CStone said the sale would save paying additional milestones while it recouped its investment. In 2018, CStone in-licensed the rights in a $424 million deal, though it paid only $12 million upfront plus $147 million in milestones. 

Huadong Medicine will collaborate with Shanghai’s Impact Therapeutics to promote Impact’s Senaparib, a novel PARP inhibitor, in mainland China (see story). Impact will receive $14 million upfront and up to $26 million in milestones. Huadong will receive promotion service fees on net sales. Impact will continue to be responsible for development, registration, manufacturing, supply and distribution of Senaparib. Earlier this year, Impact announced Senaparib met its primary endpoint in a China Phase III trial as a maintenance therapy for ovarian cancer following first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. Impact develops oncology medicines based on synthetic lethality. 

Suzhou GeneQuantum Healthcare (GQ), an ADC company, formed a collaboration with Beijing’s BioMap, an AI-based startup that analyzes the sequence and structure of proteins, to co-develop FIC/BIC ADC therapeutics for multiple targets (see story). GQ will use its proprietary enzymatic site-specific conjugation technology platforms (iLDC® and iGDC®) along with its linker-payload platform. BioMap will contribute its life science AI Foundation Large Language Model xTrimo and AI protein generation platform, AIGP.  Two months ago, BioMap announced a drug discovery deal worth up to $1 billion with Sanofi. 

Zhejiang Ablaze Medicine, a Hangzhou company that provides services for clinical trials, formed a partnership with Singapore’s Oncoshot, a company applying AI to streamline clinical trials (see story). Recently, Ablaze has expanded into data management and clinical trials recruitment. Oncoshot offers data analysis and insights that improve clinical trials. Together, the two companies expect to use AI to transform the speed, efficiency and accessibility of global drug development programs. After 20 years of aiding clinical trials, Ablaze now facilitates over 200 global customers across four continents to optimize research outcomes.  

Nanjing InxMed licensed rights to use an EZWi-Fit® linker-payload platform developed by Shanghai’s Escugen to develop ADCs containing next-gen tumor-associated antigens (see story). InxMed, a company that develops innovative therapies to counteract drug resistance, will apply Escugen’s platform to several novel ADC candidates. The company believes its next-gen ADCs will have better tumor selectivity and greater potency, allowing the possibility of combinations with other candidates. InxMed will have the right for development, manufacturing and commercialization of the ADC candidates. 

Beijing Biocytogen Pharma entered an agreement allowing Barcelona’s Ona Therapeutics to evaluate Biocytogen’s proprietary RenMice®-derived fully human antibodies against a specific tumor target (see story). Ona will have an option to acquire an exclusive license to the antibodies for development, manufacturing and commercialization of an antibody-drug conjugate. Biocytogen will receive an upfront payment for the option, and it will be eligible to receive an option-exercise fee, milestone payments and royalties. Based on its gene editing technology, Biocytogen uses its genetically engineered proprietary platforms to discover novel drug candidates. http://www.chinabiotoday.com/articles/biocytogen-adc-ona

Trials and Approvals

CellOrigin Biotechnology (Hangzhou) announced a solid-tumor patient was dosed in a China trial of SY001, the first China trial of a CAR-macrophage therapy (see story). The company develops immune cell therapies (such as macrophages, NK cells) derived from genetically engineered pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for solid tumor cancers. It believes the unique characteristics of macrophages allow the drug to infiltrate the solid tumor microenvironment. In the first two patients, SY001 was well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicity. The investigator-led study is enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors. 

RNAimmune announced it was authorized to start US Phase I trials of RV-1770, an mRNA vaccine aimed at Respiratory Syncytial Virus (see story). A subsidiary of Sirnaomics, RNAimmune is a Maryland-Guangzhou company that develops mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines. RV-1770 is a novel mRNA-based vaccine formulation with a unique AI-enhanced design based on the sequence of the recent RSV clinical isolate. The candidate is a combination of an mRNA-based vaccine with a proprietary lipid nanoparticle formulation, aimed at preventing RSV infection in adults. RNAimmune is focused on developing products for infectious diseases, cancer and rare diseases. 

Disclosure: none.