Hansoh Pharma Licenses B7-H4 ADC HS-20089 to GSK for Up to $1.485 Billion in Milestone Payments

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Enterprise NewsOn October 20, Hansoh Pharma announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai Hansoh, had entered into a licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property (No.4) Limited (the "licensee"), a subsidiary of GSK. The licensee will be granted an exclusive global license (excluding mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) to develop, manufacture, and commercialize HS-20089.
 

According to the terms of the licensing agreement, Shanghai Hansoh will receive an upfront payment of $85 million (equivalent to over 600 million RMB) and is eligible to receive up to $1.485 billion (approximately 11.5 billion RMB) in milestone payments for HS-20089. After the commercialization of HS-20089, GSK will also pay tiered royalties on global net sales outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. GSK plans to initiate Phase I clinical trials for HS-20089 outside of China in 2024.
 

It is reported that HS-20089 is a novel B7-H4-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials in China for the treatment of gynecological cancers. In addition to targeting the B7-H4 surface antigen, which is overexpressed in ovarian and endometrial cancers and is often associated with poor prognosis, HS-20089 also utilizes clinically validated ADC technology, specifically a topoisomerase inhibitor (TOPOi) payload. TOPOi represents a proven mechanism of action in approved anticancer drugs and is a recognized standard for treating breast and ovarian cancers.
 

GJ Securities research report pointed out that most of the therapies currently under research targeting B7-H4 are antibodies and ADC drugs, with breast cancer and ovarian cancer being the main focus. In terms of product development for this target, apart from Hansoh Pharma's HS-20089, there are also AstraZeneca's AZD8205 (ADC), Seagen's SGN-B8H4V (ADC), and Pfizer's PF-07260437 (B7H4/CD3 bispecific antibody), all of which are in Phase I clinical stage or preclinical stage. It can be foreseen that whoever succeeds in obtaining approval for marketing first will stand out in the market.
 

In recent years, with the increasing "internal competition" in the ADC drug field, the research and development of differentiated targets has gradually become popular, such as the clinical development of CLDN18.2, Nectin-4, B7-H3/B7-H4, etc., attracting numerous pharmaceutical companies to enter the market.
 

In addition to Hansoh Pharma's HS-20089, several other pharmaceutical companies have also been actively collaborating on ADC drugs recently. For instance, on the same day as Hansoh Pharma's collaboration with GSK, Merck and Daiichi Sankyo also announced a partnership. The two parties reached a BD collaboration on three precision oncology drug candidates: ifinatamab (B7-H3 ADC), patritumab (HER3 ADC), and raludotatug (CDH6 ADC). Merck will pay up to $22 billion in total, with an upfront payment of $4 billion (equivalent to over 190 billion RMB in total). The two companies stated that by the mid-2030s, the "global commercial revenue potential" for each of these three drugs is expected to reach billions of dollars.
 

In addition, Merck and Daiichi Sankyo recently announced collaborations on three ADC drugs, namely U3-1402 (HER3 ADC), DS-7300 (B7-H3 ADC), and DS-6000 (CDH6 ADC).
 

It is worth mentioning that Merck recently abandoned Kelun-Biotech's ADC assets. According to media reports, the two ADC products of Kelun-Biotech that Merck terminated overlap with the collaboration targets of Merck and Daiichi Sankyo. In this case, Merck may have decided to abandon Kelun-Biotech’s products in the same target area due to a stronger belief in the potential of Daiichi Sankyo’s products.
 

In this regard, some analysts believe that, judging from multiple ADC drug transactions both in and outside China, the industry still holds a relatively optimistic view on the future prospects of ADC drugs. However, at the same time, competition in this track is becoming increasingly fierce. For pharmaceutical companies with products targeting the same point, how to enhance competitiveness is a major challenge.
 

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