EpimAb Biotherapeutics, Inc.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical inked a licensing agreement with Harbour BioMed valued up to $670 million, bagging ex-China rights to the latter’s BCMAxCD3 bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) HBM7020 for treating autoimmune conditions.As part of the deal announced Sunday, Otsuka gains worldwide development and commercialisation rights for HBM7020, excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Harbour is set to receive $47 million in upfront and near-term payments, with eligibility for additional milestone payments of up to $623 million, plus tiered sales royalties.HBM7020 — developed using Harbour’s HBICE and Harbour Mice platforms — features dual anti-BCMA sites for precise targeting and monovalent CD3 binding to reduce cytokine release risk. The bispecific antibody has previously demonstrated potent cytotoxicity with therapeutic potential across immunology and oncology. It was granted IND clearance by China's National Medical Products Administration in 2023, enabling Phase I testing for cancer indications within Greater China.“HBM7020 is expected to demonstrate efficacy in a broad range of autoimmune diseases in which B cells play a major role in disease pathogenesis, and we hope to contribute further to the field of specialised autoimmune diseases," said Makoto Inoue, president of Otsuka.Drugmakers globally are increasingly looking at Chinese biotechs for attractive ventures, particularly in the oncology and autoimmune space. Earlier this month, Cullinan Therapeutics secured ex-China rights to Genrix Bio’s BCMAxCD3 BiTE, while Juri Biosciences tapped EpimAb Biotherapeutics' investigational T-cell engager for prostate cancer last month.

The authors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology abstract said phase 3 trials are planned.\n Johnson & Johnson has shared more data on its multifront attack on KLK2, linking a bispecific antibody to 7.9 months progression-free survival in hard-to-treat prostate cancer patients as it plans for further development. J&J has identified KLK2 as the most selective prostate cancer marker. While PSMA is found in the salivary glands, leading to adverse events in recipients of medicines such as Novartis’ Pluvicto, KLK2 has minimal expression outside of the prostate and as such could support safe, tolerable use of high doses. However, safety was called into question when four recipients of J&J’s KLK2 antibody-drug conjugate died.The latest results, which J&J shared at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago this week, come from a phase 1 trial of another of the company’s KLK2 candidates. The bispecific pasritamig, also called JNJ-78278343, binds to CD3 and KLK2 to direct T cells to attack prostate cancer.J&J tested pasritamig in 174 people with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who on average had received four prior therapies. The company focused its analysis on the people who received the recommended phase 2 dose, which included 45 patients in the safety group and 33 people in the efficacy group. Everyone in the safety group had previously received androgen receptor pathway inhibitors. More than three-quarters of the patients had received taxane chemotherapy, and almost 38% had taken the PSMA radiopharmaceutical Pluvicto. There were two grade 3 treatment-related adverse events—low white blood cells and transient increases in liver enzymes—at the phase 2 dose. Four people had cytokine release syndrome (CRS), but all cases were grade 1. CRS, including grade 2 cases, and grade 3 treatment-related adverse events were more common  in the overall, 174-patient data set that included people who received higher doses. At the phase 2 dose, more than two-fifths of patients had a 50% or greater reduction in prostate-specific antigen. Median radiographic progression-free survival was 7.9 months. More than one-fifth of the patients are continuing therapy. J&J said the disease control and survival data compare favorably to historical data in heavily pretreated mCRPC patients. The authors of the ASCO abstract said phase 3 trials are planned. Advancing pasritamig quickly would cement J&J’s status as the front-runner in KLK2. Juri Biosciences licensed a KLK2xCD3 bispecific from EpimAb Biotherapeutics for up to $210 million last week, but J&J’s broad, sustained focus on the target stands out. Pasritamig is one of three KLK2 candidates J&J has taken into the clinic. J&J began testing a KLK2 CAR-T candidate in humans in 2021 but stopped enrollment well short of its target in 2023. The CAR-T is not listed in J&J’s publicly disclosed pipeline. J&J continues to list the KLK2-directed ADC in its pipeline and to enroll patients in a phase 1 trial of the candidate.The multifront attack is reminiscent of how the industry has gone after popular cancer targets such as BCMA and CLDN18.2. However, while those targets attracted a who’s who of drugmakers, J&J is by far the most active company in KLK2 and is almost single-handedly responsible for the multimodality push.

Under terms of a deal with Juri Biosciences, EpimAb Biotherapeutics can receive up to $210 million biobucks across upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties. \n TCG Labs Soleil’s Juri Biosciences is offering EpimAb Biotherapeutics up to $210 million biobucks for exclusive licensing rights to the China biotech’s T-cell engager designed to treat metastatic prostate cancer.The global pact centers on EpimAb’s early-stage asset made to target kallikrein-related peptidase 2 (KLK2) and CD3, according to a May 27 release.The candidate comes from EpimAb’s multispecific antibody tech that rearranges the DNA sequences of two monoclonal antibodies into three genetic constructs in efforts to fully keep the biological function of the parent antibodies, according to the biotech’s website.In December 2024, the Shanghai-based biotech caught the eye of Candid Therapeutics, with the two inking a research deal for novel T-cell engager candidates for various autoimmune indications.This new partnership with Juri in the solid tumor space further validates the potential of EpimAb’s science beyond immunology and hematology, founder and CEO Chengbin Wu, Ph.D., said in a May 27 statement.Under the terms of the freshly inked pact, EpimAb can receive up to $210 million biobucks across upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties. Further financial details of the deal were not shared. As for Juri, very little is publicly known about the TCG Labs Soleil-created company. TCG Labs Soleil is part of The Column Group and runs a venture-biotech model with its own R&D hub. The venture fund oversees independent portfolio biotechs that are each dedicated to single-asset programs, according to the release.“We’ve acquired an exciting external innovation and are deploying our dedicated capital, scientific leadership and operational infrastructure to move it rapidly into the clinic,” TCG Labs Soleil CEO Jin-Long Chen, Ph.D., said in the release. “Prostate cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related death in men and KLK2 is a highly prostate-specific antigen with the potential to enable more precise, targeted therapy.”