Hansoh Pharma Licenses Two Novel ADCs to GSK in Back-to-Back Global Deals

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Product InformationIn recent years, Hansoh Pharma has vigorously transitioned to innovative drug development. Public information shows that the company's R&D focus for innovative drugs is on anti-tumor, anti-infective, central nervous system diseases, metabolic diseases, and autoimmune diseases. As of the first half of 2023, Hansoh Pharma has over 40 ongoing clinical trials for innovative drugs, more than 30 innovative drug projects in clinical research, six new projects entering clinical research, one project advancing to a pivotal clinical research stage, and six projects moving into the Proof of Concept (POC) research phase.
 

At the same time, Hansoh Pharma has also accelerated its "going global by partnering". According to reports, since October 10, Hansoh Pharma has successfully brought two innovative drugs to the international market.
 

On December 20, Hansoh Pharma announced that it had entered into a licensing agreement with multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). GSK will be granted relevant licenses to develop, manufacture, and commercialize HS-20093, a product researched and developed by Hansoh Pharma. The total value of this transaction exceeds $1.7 billion, with Hansoh Pharma receiving an upfront payment of $185 million and being eligible to receive milestone payments of up to $1.525 billion upon the achievement of certain related events for this product.
 

Two months ago, on October 20, Hansoh Pharma also announced that it had entered into a licensing agreement with GSK for HS-20089. According to the licensing agreement and its terms and conditions, Hansoh Pharma will receive an upfront payment of $85 million (equivalent to over 600 million yuan) and is eligible to receive up to $1.485 billion (equivalent to over 10 billion yuan) in milestone payments for HS-20089.
 

Data show that HS-20093 is a humanized IgG1 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developed by Hansoh Pharma. This product is a novel B7-H3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), composed of a fully humanized B7-H3 monoclonal antibody covalently linked to a topoisomerase inhibitor (TOPOi) payload. It is currently undergoing multiple phase I and phase II clinical trials in China for the treatment of lung cancer, sarcoma, head and neck cancer, and other solid tumors.
 

HS-20089 is a novel B7-H4-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials in China for the treatment of gynecological cancers. B7-H4 is a transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the B7 superfamily, with limited expression in normal tissues but overexpressed in a range of solid tumors, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and cholangiocarcinoma. It can be understood that B7-H4 exhibits abnormal expression in solid tumors such as breast cancer, and research on drugs targeting B7-H4 may enable the treatment of these solid tumors. To accelerate the global clinical progress of HS-20089, Hansoh Pharma stated that GSK plans to initiate Phase I clinical trials of HS-20089 outside of China in 2024.
 

It is reported that in recent years, the clinical development of differentiated targets for ADC drugs, such as CLDN18.2, Nectin-4, B7-H3/B7-H4, etc., is on the rise, with significant investments from several leading foreign companies. For instance, on the same day GSK reached a collaboration with Hansoh Pharma on HS-20089, Merck struck BD deals with Daiichi Sankyo on ifinatamab (B7-H3 ADC), patritumab (HER3 ADC), and raludotatug (CDH6 ADC). Merck will pay up to 22 billion US dollars in total, including an upfront payment of 4 billion US dollars (equivalent to over 190 billion RMB in total).
 

Since the beginning of this year, multiple ADC drug deals have occurred both domestically and internationally. In China, nine overseas licensing transactions have taken place, demonstrating the industry's strong recognition of the future prospects of ADC drugs. Additionally, statistics show that as of December 2023, more than 20 outbound transactions of China-produced ADCs have occurred, with transaction amounts exceeding $35 billion. Some institutions have noted that the diversity of targets and the sheer number of ADC drugs under research in China have driven the export of these drugs.
 

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