Roche is offering $400 million upfront and over $15 billion in biobucks to team up with Hansoh Pharmaceutical in hopes of developing a portfolio of new antibody-drug conjugates using the latter’s in-house tech.
Roche is returning to China biotech partner Hansoh Pharmaceutical, expanding upon an antibody-drug conjugate alliance with a new, wide-ranging deal that could top $15 billion.
Roche has inked a licensing pact for a “broad portfolio” of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with several Hansoh subsidiaries, according to a stock exchange filing from Hansoh. The new deal encompasses two existing preclinical ADC programs, plus multiple programs based on Roche-proposed targets powered by Hansoh’s ADC platform technology.
Hansoh will be responsible for program development up to the completion of global Phase 1a trials, with Roche taking on further development outside of certain Asian territories, such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Roche is doling out $400 million upfront, plus a $110 million payment at the one-year mark. The rest of the massive potential total could come by way of milestone payments. Hansoh will also have the chance to collect tiered royalties.
Hansoh could also choose to contribute to ex-Asia development for two programs stemming from the alliance and gain incremental earnings from potential U.S. commercialization.
The two companies previously paired up almost exactly a year ago, with Roche paying $80 million upfront for certain licensing rights to HS-20110, a CDH17-targeting ADC using a topoisomerase inhibitor payload to treat solid tumors.
Now Roche is back for more, building off a recent string of deals with other China companies. Just last week, the pharma gained access to a genetic obesity approach from Rona Therapeutics in a deal that could top $1 billion.
Roche isn’t Hansoh’s only big pharma partner, even in the ADC space. At the end of 2023, U.K. pharma GSK paid $185 million upfront for access to Hansoh’s HS-20093—also known as risvutatug rezetecan (ris-rez)—in a deal that could surpass $1.5 billion.
Earlier this summer, ris-rez hit the main goal of a pivotal study, extending overall survival for patients with small cell lung cancer. The findings represent the first positive Phase 3 overall survival data for a B7-H3–targeted ADC in any tumor type, GSK said at the time.
In early September, China regulators accepted for review Hansoh’s approval submission that is based on the Phase 3 data. Meanwhile, GSK intends to keep advancing the ADC across multiple tumor types.
