Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)
Analysts called the data “very competitive” but raised questions about safety. Merck gained ownership of the ADC when it acquired VelosBio in November 2020 for $2.75 billion.
One year after a potential $1.7 billion deal with Hansoh Pharma, GSK goes back to China to forge another alliance with DualityBio for another deal that could be worth up to $1 billion as it continues to build up its ADC portfolio.
Novartis, Gilead, Roche and Takeda commit to new partners in a spate of mid-sized collaborations this week. Meanwhile, Applied Therapeutics’ stock tanks 80% after govorestat is denied approval, Intra-Cellular Therapies seeks to expand Caplyta into major depressive disorder and the FDA investigates the safety of bluebird bio’s Skysona.
The deal with Tubulis will help Gilead regain its footing in the ADC space following the withdrawal of Trodelvy in bladder cancer and its late-stage fail in NSCLC.
Adcendo joins a growing group of biotechs working to usher the next generation of antibody-drug conjugates to the market.
ADC Therapeutics, Sutro Biopharma and Zai Lab are among those developing antibody-drug conjugates to address payload and toxicity challenges of current ADCs—and rapidly grow the multibillion-dollar market.
GSK is carving out a niche for Blenrep in the second-line multiple myeloma setting, for which it projects multi-blockbuster potential for the antibody-drug conjugate.
The acquisition will give BioNTech full ownership of an investigational bispecific antibody targeting the PD-L1/VEGF-A pathways, a hot area in oncology that could potentially replace standard checkpoint inhibitors for cancer treatment.
CEO Roberto Iacone admitted in an interview that the market remains tough, even for a biotech in the red-hot ADC world. But Alentis is targeting an IPO as early as 2025.
While some of the initial excitement around immunotherapies has waned, companies—particularly smaller biotechs—are developing newer iterations that will take cancer care to the next level.
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