BioNTech will obtain rights to commercialise the DB-1305 worldwide, except in Mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region, where DualityBio will retain its commercial rights
BioNTech main administration and laboratory building. (Credit: BioNTech SE.)
Chinese biotech company Duality Biologics (DualityBio) has expanded its collaboration with BioNTech to develop, manufacture and market its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate, DB-1305.
The DB-1305 is a third-generation Trop2 ADC molecule, designed using from DualityBio’s unique Duality Immune Toxin Antibody Conjugates (DITAC) platform.
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, DualityBio will receive upfront payments, additional milestone payments, and tiered royalties on sales of DB-1305.
BioNTech will obtain rights to commercialise the drug worldwide, except in Mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region.
DualityBio will retain commercial rights in the excluded regions.
In April this year, BioNTech and DualityBio signed an exclusive license and collaboration agreement to develop, manufacture and commercialise two ADC candidates.
The collaboration was designed to develop, manufacture, and market the two ADC assets worldwide, except in Mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau.
DB-1305 is the company’s third ADC candidate, currently in Phase 1/2 development for solid tumours.
The ADC candidate showed potential antitumor activity in preclinical tumour models and superior clinical efficacy in NSCLC and other solid tumours.
DualityBio is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on the discovery and development of next-gen ADC therapeutics to treat patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Last month, the Chinese biotech company teamed up with biotechnology company BeiGene to advance the development of a differentiated ADC therapy for solid tumours.
BeiGene has agreed to purchase an exclusive option for a global clinical and commercial license to DualityBio’s investigational ADC therapy for select solid tumours.
BeiGene R&D global head Lai Wang then said: “With one of the industry’s leading global oncology research teams, we are investing in highly impactful therapeutic modalities such as ADCs that complement our dynamic and growing pipeline in solid tumours.
“Through this strategic partnership with DualityBio, we are well positioned to advance this asset globally alongside our initial internally discovered ADC assets with our end-to-end ADC manufacturing capabilities.”