METiS TechBio Sets New Record for China Preclinical TCE Licensing Deal With $1.6 Billion Pact

Record-breaking upfront payment for a preclinical TCE license in China shattered once again, but this time, the market's attention is not just on the transaction amount.

On June 30, METiS TechBio announced that it has entered into a global exclusive licensing agreement with Boulevard Bio, a U.S. biotechnology company established with support from Deerfield Management, for its independently developed trispecific T-cell engager (TCE) project, MTS-128. Under the terms of the agreement, METiS TechBio will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and is eligible to receive up to $1.6 billion in development, regulatory, and commercialization milestone payments, plus tiered royalties based on product sales.

Judging solely by the figures, this deal has set a new record for the largest single overseas licensing payment for a preclinical TCE project by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, and it is also one of the highest-value single licensing transactions in the global preclinical TCE sector to date. More noteworthy for the industry than the record itself is the shift in the underlying business logic represented by this transaction.

Lai Caida, Chairman of METiS TechBio, stated in the announcement: "This transaction is not only a milestone in the strategic alliance between METiS TechBio and Deerfield, but also a critical moment for AI-driven drug delivery innovation in China." In the market's view, the subtext of this statement is that the narrative of AI-driven drug discovery in China is shifting from "technology demonstration" to "value realization."

In the past few years, AI-driven drug discovery has experienced a surge in capital investment, followed by technological skepticism, and ultimately commercial validation. The market has been awaiting an answer to a critical question: Is AI merely a tool for enhancing R&D efficiency, or can it consistently generate novel drug assets with global competitiveness? The international expansion of METiS TechBio's MTS-128 may offer the most compelling response to date.

Over the past two years, license-out deals for innovative Chinese drugs have entered a phase of rapid growth, with large-scale overseas licensing agreements continually reshaping industry perceptions. From ADCs to GLP-1 therapies and bispecific antibodies, Chinese biotech companies have increasingly become a key source of innovative assets for multinational pharmaceutical firms.

While mature projects continue to set new transaction records, it is uncommon for preclinical projects to secure licensing deals of such high value. The reason is straightforward: earlier stages entail higher risks. When multinational pharmaceutical companies are willing to pay substantial premiums, it typically signifies that they are endorsing not just a single drug candidate, but the entire R&D system's capacity to sustainably generate future products.

In this transaction, MTS-128 remains in the preclinical stage. The $1.6 billion valuation represents the pricing for a preclinical TCE asset. Within the global landscape of licensing deals, the significance of this figure warrants reevaluation.

It is evident that the counterparty to the transaction is not a financial investment institution in the traditional sense.

Deerfield has long been regarded as one of the investment firms with the strongest capability in integrating industrial resources within the global life sciences sector. Unlike typical funds, it not only provides capital but also deeply engages in corporate strategy, clinical development, global regulatory approvals, and international industry collaborations. With over $16 billion in assets under management and investments in more than 200 companies, Deerfield has established a profound global presence in cutting-edge biotechnology and innovative drug sectors, including oncology, autoimmune diseases, RNA therapies, gene editing, and AI-driven drug discovery.

Publicly available information reveals a deep-rooted connection between METiS TechBio and Deerfield. As a cornerstone investor in METiS TechBio's Hong Kong IPO, Deerfield further announced on May 28 that the two parties would jointly develop next-generation in vivo protein therapeutics and immunotherapies. For METiS TechBio, Deerfield is not merely a capital provider but has become an "empowering investment platform" with significant industrial influence in the global life sciences sector.

The contracting party, Boulevard Bio, also possesses distinct characteristics. It is not a traditional biotech company but rather a new entity established with support from Deerfield, advancing global development by acquiring high-quality innovative assets—a model that has become increasingly common in European and American markets in recent years.

This means that the licensing deal secured by METiS TechBio is not merely a licensing opportunity, but a crucial gateway into the global innovative drug industry network.

Furthermore, examining this transaction within the competitive landscape of the global TCE sector may provide a clearer understanding of its value.

Cancer immunotherapy has been one of the hottest areas in recent years. Traditional bispecific TCEs have achieved breakthroughs in hematologic malignancies. Amgen's Tarlatamab was approved in 2024 for the treatment of small cell lung cancer, with sales reaching approximately $115 million in 2024 and soaring to $178 million in the third quarter of 2025 alone. However, the success seen in hematologic cancers has proven difficult to replicate in solid tumors, due to bottlenecks such as on-target off-tumor toxicity, suppression by the tumor microenvironment, and insufficient tissue penetration caused by excessive molecular size.

The emergence of trispecific TCEs aims to address multiple challenges simultaneously. By modulating a greater number of biological mechanisms concurrently, trispecific antibodies are poised to demonstrate unique advantages in enhancing tumor-killing efficiency, improving therapeutic selectivity, and bolstering safety profiles. Global pharmaceutical giants are intensively investing in this domain: In 2025, AbbVie consecutively closed three trispecific TCE deals, including ZG006 from Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals (DLL3×DLL3×CD3, with a total value exceeding $1.2 billion), SIM0500 from Simcere Innovation (GPRC5D/BCMA/CD3, with a total value exceeding $1 billion), and ISB 2001 from IGI (CD3/CD38/BCMA, featuring a $70 million upfront payment and a total deal value of $1.925 billion).

Chinese companies are increasingly strengthening their presence in the TCE sector. In 2025, WuXi Biologics licensed four TCE bispecific/multispecific antibodies to GSK for a total value of $1.5 billion; Tongrun Biopharma licensed its CD3×CD19 bispecific antibody CN201 to MSD for a total value of $1.3 billion; and Chimagen licensed its CD3×CD19×CD20 trispecific antibody CMG1A46 to GSK for a total value of $850 million. However, the assets underlying these transactions are mostly in clinical development or have at least entered the IND application stage.

METiS TechBio's MTS-128 breaks this convention. As a preclinical asset, it has commanded a valuation surpassing that of most clinical-stage TCE deals. This "anomaly" reflects Deerfield's recognition of the NanoForge platform's potential to consistently generate innovative assets and its bet on commercial viability.

If the $1.6 billion transaction answers the question, "What kind of Chinese innovative assets is the international market willing to pay for?" then behind MTS-128 lies another, more noteworthy question: Why METiS TechBio?

The answer may not lie in any single project, but rather in the R&D platform behind it: NanoForge.

In recent years, a controversy has persisted in the AI-driven drug discovery industry: Is AI merely a tool, or does it represent a capability capable of continuously generating novel drugs? Many companies have applied AI to target identification, molecular screening, or structure prediction, primarily serving an efficiency-enhancing role within the R&D process. However, the ultimate success or failure of an innovative drug still hinges on the subsequent lengthy stages of experimental validation, process development, and clinical advancement. Consequently, capital markets have at times expressed skepticism toward AI-driven drug discovery firms, viewing them more as software companies than as innovative pharmaceutical enterprises.

This skepticism has also prompted a round of value reassessment across the entire industry.

In contrast, METiS TechBio has chosen a different path. Rather than limiting AI to a single R&D stage, the company has built the NanoForge platform, integrating artificial intelligence with protein design, drug delivery, nanomaterial development, and innovative therapy research into a comprehensive system.

If drug molecules are likened to "payloads" delivered to target tissues in the human body, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) serve as "nano-rockets" tasked with protection, transport, and release. Traditional LNP development relies heavily on empirical trial-and-error approaches; a single formulation often requires extensive screening and repeated validation, resulting in prolonged timelines and high costs. Furthermore, it is challenging to consistently consolidate insights from one iteration into a foundational starting point for subsequent development efforts.

According to public information, NanoForge adopts an integrated R&D framework of "dry lab + wet lab + agents," establishing four core capabilities—AiProtein, AiLNP, AiRNA, and AiTEM—that cover key stages including protein generation, delivery system design, RNA sequence optimization, and formulation development.

To date, METiS TechBio has achieved precise targeted delivery to eight key organs and tissues: the liver, lungs, heart, muscles, tumor tissues, immune system, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal tract. Leveraging its AiTEM platform, the preclinical formulation development cycle for its core product, MTS-004, has been compressed from the traditional 1–2 years to less than three months.

This model signifies that AI is no longer merely assisting scientists in improving efficiency, but has begun to participate in the entire innovative drug R&D process. From early-stage molecular design and delivery system optimization to the formation of drug candidates, the platform can continuously deliver new R&D outcomes.

MTS-128 is a prime example of this platform's capabilities.

As a trispecific TCE, MTS-128 has completed the entire R&D process from molecular design to optimization leveraging the NanoForge platform. Compared with traditional bispecific TCEs, trispecific TCEs can simultaneously modulate multiple biological mechanisms and are considered to possess greater technical potential in enhancing tumor-killing efficacy, improving therapeutic selectivity, and mitigating safety risks.

More importantly, MTS-128 is not the sole achievement of NanoForge, but rather a concentrated demonstration of the platform's continuous generation of innovative assets.

For a platform-based biotech company, the market's primary concern has never been whether it can deliver a single project, but rather whether it can consistently develop a second, third, or even more new projects with global competitiveness. Only when the platform demonstrates stable drug-discovery and development capabilities can its commercial value be truly established.

This transaction sends a decidedly positive signal. The willingness of international partners to pay a substantial premium for MTS-128 reflects not only their endorsement of the project itself, but also their confidence in NanoForge's capacity to continuously deliver innovative assets in the future.

In other words, this transaction validates not just a single molecule, but an entire "innovation factory." For the AI-driven drug discovery industry, such validation of platform value holds greater long-term significance than any individual deal.

Viewed over a longer timeframe, the global expansion of MTS-128 is, in fact, a microcosm of the development path of China's AI-driven biotech sector.

In recent years, China's AI-driven drug discovery sector has undergone a phase of rapid development. From the massive influx of capital and continuous advancements in model capabilities to the industry's gradual return to rationality, stakeholders have come to recognize that algorithms alone are insufficient to establish competitive barriers. What truly determines a company's value remains its innovation assets and commercialization capabilities.

This is also a key reason why global capital has been recalibrating the valuation logic for AI-driven drug discovery in recent years.

Rather than focusing on model parameters, computing power, or the number of academic papers, an increasing number of investment firms are turning their attention to a more pragmatic question: How many new drug candidates with genuine clinical and commercial value can a platform consistently generate?

Only those who can consistently generate assets will continuously gain capital recognition.

METiS TechBio's collaboration aligns precisely with this industry trend.

Notably, the partner in this completed collaboration is Deerfield. As mentioned above, Deerfield possesses not only strong capital resources but also a comprehensive resource network covering clinical development, global regulatory registration, industrial partnerships, and international business development.

Therefore, this collaboration can be understood as a "dual verification."

On one hand, international capital recognizes the platform value of NanoForge; on the other hand, global industrial resources are also willing to collaborate around this platform to advance subsequent development. This signifies that NanoForge has begun its transition from a technology platform to a global industrial platform.

Set against the broader backdrop of the globalization of China's innovative drugs, this is also representative.

In the past, Chinese biotech companies relied more on license-out deals for individual projects; today, an increasing number of enterprises aim to build platforms capable of continuously incubating innovative assets, thereby generating new global collaboration opportunities and achieving long-term value growth.

From ADCs and bispecific antibodies to RNA therapies, and further to AI-driven drug discovery, China's innovative pharmaceutical industry is gradually shifting from "selling products" to "selling platforms."

The global licensing of MTS-128 serves as a new case in point for this trend. It demonstrates that Chinese AI biotech companies are moving beyond the stage of mere technical validation and entering a new cycle of commercial value realization.

However, the $1.6 billion valuation of MTS-128 is merely an interim milestone. The true test has only just begun. Every stage—from preclinical development to IND application, from Phase I to Phase III clinical trials, and from regulatory approval to commercialization—serves as a stress test for the NanoForge platform. While Deerfield's resources and expertise will play a pivotal role in this process, the ultimate decisive factor remains the data: Can AI models consistently generate superior molecular designs? Can LNP delivery systems replicate the precise targeting observed in animal models within the human body? Can the expression levels and duration of TCE in vivo achieve the therapeutic window?

There are no ready-made answers to these questions. At the very least, METiS TechBio has propelled China's AI-driven drug delivery sector to the center of the global stage with a record-breaking deal. The next chapter will be written by the overall execution capabilities of China's innovative pharmaceutical industry.