Escugen and Sovran Forge Strategic Partnership Announcement

June 12, 2025 — Shanghai Escugen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (“Escugen”) and Sovran Bio, Inc. (“Sovran” or “Sovran Bio”) jointly announced today the signing of a strategic collaboration agreement.

This collaboration aims to leverage Sovran's novel approach to broad-spectrum disease targeting and unique biologic architectures together with Escugen's proprietary EZWi-Fit® platform technology and deep development expertise to rapidly advance multiple novel antibody and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutic product candidates to the clinical. Under the agreement, the parties will jointly contribute to partnered program research and development with shared upside.

Dr. David Meininger, Founder & CEO of Sovran, remarked that “the deal plays to the strengths of each company to quickly and efficiently translate new thinking on well-known therapeutic problems into better solutions for patients.”

Dr. Qing Zhou, Co-Founder and CEO of Escugen, stated that “this partnership marks a significant milestone for both companies to accelerate their R&D processes in bringing next-generation therapeutics to the global pharmaceutical market. A joint research effort also harvests tremendous global opportunities for both parties.”

About Sovran

Sovran Bio is a biopharmaceutical research and development company dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs. The company is exploring novel approaches to tumor-antigen specificity potentially applicable to any cancer. Pipeline efforts include pursuit of additional solutions to challenges inherent to broad-spectrum targeting in oncology, autoimmunity and other disease areas. For more information, visit https://sovranbio.com/ and connect with us on LinkedIn.

About Escugen

Escugen is a clinical-stage biotechnology company located in Shanghai, China, focusing on the development of innovative ADC drugs. Currently, Escugen's lead Trop-2 ADC pipeline, ESG401, has entered Phase III clinical trials. Escugen's next-generation linker-payload technology platform, EZWi-Fit®, offers significant competitive advantages in terms of safety, efficacy, anti-multiple drug resistance, and pharmacokinetic characteristics. Leveraging this platform technology, Escugen is rapidly expanding its ADC pipeline targeting new or validated target. The first ADC product baring the EZWi-Fit® technology has successfully launched its FIH clinical campaign. In addition, Escugen has licensed this platform technology to several domestic and international biotechnology companies to empower their innovative ADC projects.

Source: Sovran Bio, Inc.

https://sovranbio.com/