ADCs still attracting large pharma as Roche signs $1B MediLink deal
02 Jan 2024
ADCPhase 1Phase 2Clinical ResultLicense out/in
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) dominated 2023 dealmaking, with some of the largest drugmakers – Pfizer, Merck & Co., AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb – inking pacts worth billions. Now Roche, which markets two of the earliest approved ADCs, is investing in the space once again through a partnership with MediLink announced Tuesday that could be worth close to $1 billion.
Roche is gaining exclusive global rights to YL211, an ADC targeting c-Met to treat solid tumours. The firm’s China Innovation Center will partner with MediLink to start a Phase I trial of YL211. MediLink will receive $50 million, comprising an upfront payment and near-term milestones, and is eligible for additional development, regulatory, and commercial milestones for a total deal value near $1 billion, plus tiered royalties.
MediLink, which in October out-licensed a HER3-targeted ADC to BioNTech in a similarly valued deal, develops ADCs with its TMALIN platform to overcome the shortcomings of earlier iterations of the modality.
MediLink says the technology uses a dual cleavage mechanism both intracellularly and extracellularly to leverage both the tumour microenvironment and traditional lysosomes. Advantages of ADCs formed by TMALIN include fewer instances of payload falling off in non-target tissues, resulting in less "off-target" toxicity, as well as chemical stability and high coupling efficiency, the company says.
AbbVie has a c-MET head start
The drugmaker’s telisotuzumab vedotin is in a Phase III trial in patients with c-Met protein overexpressing, EGFR wild type, non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer. In November, AbbVie announced positive overall response rate data from a Phase II study in the same patient group that it said could support an accelerated approval.
ADC pile-on
AbbVie is set to have the largest ADC pipeline in development among major pharmas, thanks to its pending $10.1-billion acquisition of ImmunoGen, and is tied with Pfizer for total ADC assets. Pfizer’s $43-billion Seagen takeout, which closed last month, gave the firm three approved ADCs and at least two clinical programmes for the modality. For more, see Vital Signs: AbbVie zooms past Pfizer into top ADC spot.
Merck also ponied up billions for ADCs in 2023. The large pharma agreed to pay Daiichi Sankyo $4 billion upfront to advance three of the Japanese drugmaker's ADC candidates across multiple tumour types. The deal, worth up to $22 billion, positioned Merck in a tie for second place for total ADC assets, along with AstraZeneca.
Bristol Myers Squibb, which shares the title of third-largest ADC pipeline along with GSK, nabbed rights to a bispecific ADC from SystImmune in December in a deal that could be worth up to $8.4 million. The firm agreed to pay $800 million upfront for BL-B01D1, a EGFRxHER3 bispecific topoisomerase inhibitor-based ADC.
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