With an upfront payment of $185 million, GSK on Wednesday added another exclusive antibody-drug conjugate license agreement with China-based Hansoh Pharma.
Pictured: GSK building in Poznan, Poland/iStock, Wirestock
GSK continues to make deals in the antibody-drug conjugate space, this time inking a deal worth around $1.7 billion with China-based Hansoh Pharma, according to GSK’s announcement on Wednesday.
Under the deal, GSK will obtain an exclusive license agreement for the global rights to Hansoh’s B7-H3 targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) HS-20093, paying $185 million upfront.
Hansoh will retain the rights to the drug in mainland China, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong. At the same time, GSK will be responsible for the clinical development and eventual commercialization of the ADC. The terms of the deal will also see GSK potentially pay tiered royalties on the global sales of the drug to Hansoh, while the Chinese biopharma will also be eligible to receive up to $1.525 billion in milestone payments.
“B7-H3 is highly expressed in a broad range of solid tumors where there remains a significant need for novel treatment options. We look forward to progressing this potential new treatment across several indications and, in the future, potential combination approaches with our established portfolio.” Hesham Abdullah, senior vice president and global head oncology at GSK, said in a statement.
According to GSK, the deal with Hansoh gives the U.K.-based company a second ADC in the clinical stage. The HS-20093 candidate is currently in Phase I and Phase II trials in China and has recorded “initial clinical activity” in patients with small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and sarcoma. GSK plans to start Phase I trials for the candidate outside China sometime in 2024.
“HS-20093 is a novel B7-H3 targeting antibody-drug conjugate showing encouraging early clinical signals in lung cancer. We are excited to enter this new license agreement with GSK, our existing licensee on HS-20089, furthering Hansoh’s goal of bringing a potentially transformative treatment option to cancer patients globally,” Eliza Sun, executive director of the board of Hansoh Pharma, said in a statement.
This is not the first ADC deal that GSK has made with Hansoh. In October 2023, the companies announced an agreement for HS-20089, a B7-H4-focused ADC meant to treat ovarian and endometrial cancer. That candidate is currently in Phase II trials in China. At the time, GSK paid Hanosh $85 million upfront, with Hansoh potentially collecting over $1.4 billion in milestone payments.
Last year, GSK and Mersana Therapeutics began a collaboration to co-develop and commercialize Mersana’s ADC XMT-2056. That deal saw Mersana receive a $100 million upfront payment and the promise of $1.36 billion in milestone payments.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
