Collaboration
Also on Thursday, Zealand held its Capital Markets Day in London, outlining the strategy for its weight management franchise in the near-term, including launching five products by 2030.
At the heart of the deal is Relation’s Lab-in-the-Loop platform, which uses AI models to improve understanding of diseases and guide clinical development programs.
The partnership will focus on Crescent’s PD-1/VEGF inhibitor CR-001 and Kelun-Biotech’s SKB105, both of which the companies plan to push into Phase I/II development for solid tumors early next year.
The centerpiece of the deal is the in vivo editor TSRA-196, which in preclinical studies has shown robust editing at SERPINA1, the locus linked to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
The CRO market in the APAC region is thriving, particularly in China, due to intense clinical trial and innovation development, with Western investors and pharma leaning in.
The companies have yet to disclose how many programs they plan to collaborate on or what indications they will prioritize.
In 2025, landmark obesity drug deals, China’s biotech surge, and AI’s deeper integration into pharma operations drove a year of transformation and renewed momentum for life sciences.
Roche has already signed several high-ticket deals this year, including the $3.5 billion acquisition of 89bio and Genentech’s $2.1 billion molecular glue pact with Orionis Biosciences.
With more than $1.5 billion on the line, Gilead looks to bolster its CAR T portfolio.
2025 has been a busy year for Boehringer Ingelheim, which has so far inked at least five hefty partnerships—including its latest one with South Korea’s AimedBio for an antibody-drug conjugate therapy for cancer.
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