Through its DualityBio deal, Roche’s Genentech hopes to create antibody-drug conjugates with payloads that can circumvent growing cancer drug resistance.
Just days after announcing a deal with a South Korean company, Roche’s Genentech is now partnering with Shanghai-based DualityBio to advance next-generation antibody-drug conjugates for cancer.
Under the terms of the deal, Genentech will pay $45 million upfront and set aside up to more than $1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones, according to a Friday morning news release from DualityBio. The biotech will also be eligible for tiered royalties on net sales of products that reach the market.
At the heart of the partnership is DualityBio’s proprietary DUPAC platform, which generates payloads that go beyond the current cytotoxic payloads and thus help to address growing drug resistance, according to the company’s website. DUPAC payloads also have a short half-life, rapidly clearing from the body.
DualityBio will use DUPAC to generate antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programs against oncology targets of Genentech’s choosing, though the partners have yet to reveal specific disease priorities. The Chinese company will be in charge of discovery and early global development, with Genentech taking over after Phase 1a studies, according to the Friday announcement.
Genentech already has two FDA-approved ADCs: Polivy, indicated for diffuse large B cell lymphoma, and Kadcyla, for the treatment of certain types of breast cancer.
The DualityBio deal comes just days after Genentech put up to $2.3 billion on the line to work with South Korea’s Hanmi Pharm on a non-incretin peptide candidate designed to improve the quality of weight loss. Parent company Roche also inked a previous China deal in January, committing $570 million in upfront and near-term payments to MediLink for an ADC asset.
DualityBio also continues the pharma’s dealing spree in cancer. In June, Roche linked up with Nurix Therapeutics in a deal that could reach $2.3 billion in value, gaining the right to co-develop and co-commercialize a BTK degrader candidate called bexobrutideg for B cell malignancies. In April, Roche deepened its relationship with C4 Therapeutics, betting more than $1 billion for two degrader-antibody conjugates for undisclosed cancer targets.
