A year after their first antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) team-up, Roche has returned to Hansoh Pharmaceutical for a mammoth $15 billion biobucks pact.
The latest agreement spans a “broad portfolio of ADC programs,” Hansoh explained in an Oct. 19 release. They include two ADCs already in preclinical development at the Chinese biopharma, along with multiple programs focused on targets suggested by Roche but powered by Hansoh’s ADC tech.
The plan is for Jiangsu-based Hansoh to take these programs through phase 1 trials, before passing over responsibility to Roche to develop the ADCs worldwide—excluding Greater China.
In return, Hansoh will receive $400 million in upfront cash, followed by $110 million on the first anniversary of the deal. Further down the line, the biopharma is in line for potentially up to $15 billion in development, regulatory and commercialization milestones, as well as tiered royalties on sales if any ADCs make it to market.
The deal also has a clause where Hansoh could opt to contribute toward the global development of two programs from the collaboration. If it picks this route, Hansoh would become eligible to receive “incremental upside from the commercialization of these two programs,” according to the release.
This morning’s deal comes a year after Roche handed $80 million to Hansoh and pledged $1.45 billion in biobucks for the ex-China license to a CDH17-targeted ADC, dubbed HS-20110. At the time, HS-20110 was already in phase 1 testing in China and the U.S. as a potential treatment for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors.
“Building on the ADC partnership we announced last year, we are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with Roche,” Eliza Sun, Executive Director of Hansoh’s board, said in this morning’s release.
“This new agreement reflects our shared commitment to advancing ADC innovation and underscores our strategy of leveraging our deep expertise to accelerate the development of transformative therapies for cancer patients globally,” Sun added.
Boris Zaïtra, head of corporate business development at Roche, said in this morning’s release that“expanding our strategic collaboration with Hansoh marks an important step in advancing our ADC vision.”
“Exploring next-generation ADCs is one of the most compelling frontiers in oncology today, offering the opportunity to address critical unmet needs and accelerate potential therapies for patients worldwide,” Zaïtra added.
Roche isn’t the only Big Pharma that’s turned to Hansoh to help power its ADC ambitions. GSK has already tasted clinical success with a pair of ADCs aimed at B7-H3 and B7-H4, respectively.
The B7-H3-directed ADC, dubbed ris-rez, recently achieved a median overall survival of 18.5 months in a phase 3 trial, lining up the therapy as a potential threat to Amgen and Merck & Co. in the lung cancer field. Last night, GSK unveiled the first global data for ris-rez, which demonstrated a 61% overall response rate in a phase 1b trial.
Jefferies analysts said that the readout helped move ris-rez from a therapy defined by its “impressive China phase 3” data to “a much more globally validated asset story.” Ris-rez is “starting to look like the B7-H3 ADC to beat in relapsed SCLC,” the analysts concluded.
Hong Kong-listed Hansoh has been one of the leading lights in China’s emergence as a biopharma innovation engine, notching collaborations with the likes of Merck & Co. and Regeneron. In August, Hansoh offered a bullish assessment of China’s innovative biopharma sector, arguing (PDF) that the industry is “fully transitioning from the ‘follower’ phase to the ‘frontrunner’ phase.”
This year, Hansoh stepped up spending to support its pipeline of more than 40 innovative medicine candidates that it is assessing in more than 70 clinical trials. R&D spending at the company jumped 20.7% to 1.7 billion Chinese yuan ($253 million) over the first half of the year.
Where Big Pharma is placing its bets is one of the hot topics being discussed at Fierce Biotech's high-impact event in London next month. Find out more information and register by clicking on the banner below:
