Roche will gain worldwide rights outside of the Greater China region to Hansoh’s HS-20110, an antibody-drug conjugate in early-stage development for colorectal cancer.
Roche, looking to China once again, obtained a worldwide license to Hansoh Pharmaceutical’s investigational antibody-drug conjugate for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors.
The deal, announced Friday, will see Roche pay $80 million upfront, Hansoh revealed in its news release. The Chinese collaborator said that it would also be entitled to development, regulatory and commercialization milestones, but did not specify how much. Several media reports, however, noted that these contingent payments could reach $1.45 billion in value.
Hansoh, which will will retain rights to the ADC in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, will additionally be able to receive royalties from Roche on potential future product sales.
The star of Friday’s deal is HS-20110, is in a global Phase I trial for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors. The ADC’s target is CDH17, a cell adhesion protein that, among other functions, helps maintain the integrity of tissues. In cancer, dysregulated CDH17 expression has been tied to the formation of tumors and metastasis. HS-20110 works by targeting malignant cells with this protein and delivering a validated topoisomerase inhibitor payload, triggering cell death.
In a statement on Friday, Hansoh’s executive director of the Board Eliza Sun called HS-20110 a “promising” cancer therapy in development for solid tumors and colorectal cancer. “Partnering with Roche enables HS-20110 to move faster toward potential approval and patient access,” Sun added.
Friday’s deal with Hansoh is in line with Roche’s continued search for assets in China. In January 2024, Roche joined hands with Suzhou-based MediLink Therapeutics to advance a c-Met-directed ADC for solid tumors.The pharma started 2025 off with a similar ADC-focused deal with China’s Innovent, fronting $80 million and putting $1 billion on the line in milestones. The asset at the heart of the deal, IBI3009, targets the DLL3 protein and is being tested for small cell lung cancer.
The pharma then added $300 million into its Chinese investments in May, money meant to boost its manufacturing operations in the country and strengthening its domestic supply chain.
Roche is part of a burgeoning group of companies that are looking for Chinese partners in their quest for new and innovative assets. Just in the past week, for instance, there were two such eastward deals: Kite Pharma’s $1.5 billion cell therapy bet with Pregene and AviadoBio’s $413 million eye disease-focused agreement with UgeneX.
In the first half of 2025, the biopharma industry has placed invested as much as $48.5 billion in these Chinese deals, led by Pfizer’s more-than $6 million 3SBio partnership in May and AstraZeneca’s $5.3 billion pact with CSPC in June. In all of 2024, Chinese contracts accrued $44.8 billion in total value.
