DualityBio, Genentech Sign Billion-Dollar Deal to Co-Develop ADCs for Drug-Resistant Tumors

DualityBio has signed a next-generation antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) co-development agreement worth more than 1 trillion won with Genentech, a Roche Group company.

According to BioPharma APAC on the 31st local time, DualityBio and Genentech signed a collaboration and licensing agreement to develop next-generation ADCs targeting drug-resistant tumors.

The collaboration will use DualityBio’s proprietary DUPAC platform and its capabilities in early global clinical development. Genentech will subsequently oversee clinical development and commercialization worldwide.

DUPAC is one of DualityBio’s four ADC platforms and addresses payloads with novel mechanisms of action. It was designed to overcome resistance to payload classes used in currently approved ADCs.

As topoisomerase inhibitor-based ADCs expand into earlier lines of treatment for major solid tumors, patients who are resistant to this class have emerged as a significant unmet need. DUPAC was developed to maintain anticancer activity in this setting.

Under the agreement, DualityBio will discover and develop ADCs using DUPAC payloads against tumor targets selected by Genentech. DualityBio will lead early global clinical development, while Genentech will assume sole responsibility for clinical development after Phase 1a and commercialization.

DualityBio will receive an upfront payment of $45 million (approximately 63 billion won) and may receive more than $1 billion (approximately 1.4 trillion won) in development, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments across the overall program. It will also receive tiered royalties based on annual net sales of approved products.

John Zhu, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of DualityBio, said, "As topoisomerase inhibitor-based ADCs achieve broad clinical success and move into earlier lines of treatment, the unmet need is growing for patients who are resistant or refractory to this payload class."

He added, "DUPAC was created to address this challenge with a next-generation payload family designed to overcome resistance," and said, "By combining DualityBio’s payload innovation with Genentech’s oncology expertise and global development capabilities, we will be able to deliver differentiated medicines to more patients."

Boris L. Zeitler, Roche’s head of corporate business development, said, "By further strengthening targeted medicines such as ADCs, we are focusing innovation on areas of greatest need," adding, "Through collaborations with partners such as DualityBio, we can identify new treatment options to address unmet needs in cancer care."