Genentech pays $45M for DualityBio ADC pact

Roche's Genentech is paying DualityBio $45 million upfront for rights to antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) designed for patients who progress after treatment with the modality. The deal could be worth more than $1 billion in potential milestones.

Approved ADCs like AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu and Gilead's Trodelvy deliver cytotoxic topoisomerase inhibitors to cells expressing certain receptors. As these drugs move into earlier lines of therapy, an unmet need is emerging among patients who progress and become less responsive to topoisomerase inhibitors.

Targeting ADC-Resistant Cancers

Genentech has identified DualityBio as a company that could meet this need. The deal gives Genentech access to the Chinese biotech's Dupac platform. DualityBio designed these payloads to retain efficacy in tumors that progress on existing, topoisomerase-based ADCs.

DualityBio will generate and develop ADCs that deliver Dupac payloads to targets picked by Genentech. The biotech will advance candidates into the clinic, leveraging China's early-stage cost and speed advantages. Genentech will assume sole responsibility for development after phase 1a.

The Dupac Payload Platform

DualityBio has published a series of abstracts on Dupac payloads over the past 16 months. Last year, the biotech unveiled two abstracts on its mRNA translation inhibitor, DUP5. This asset could improve on the efficacy of GSK's BCMA-directed ADC, Blenrep.

The company has also shared data on an ecteinascidin derivative. This shows potential to improve on TA-MUC1-targeting ADCs such as Daiichi's DS-3939a. The data demonstrated that the DUP9 payload kills cells expressing EGFR and DLL3. DualityBio plans to file to test the TA-MUC1 ADC in humans next year. The biotech has a third Dupac payload, DUP10, but has yet to publish preclinical data on it.

A Popular Partner for Western Drugmakers

DualityBio's development of the Dupac payload adds a platform to a portfolio popular with Western drugmakers seeking ADC candidates. In 2023 and 2024, BioNTech, GSK and BeiGene, now called BeOne Medicines, struck deals for DualityBio ADCs.

Those earlier deals focused on DualityBio's topoisomerase platform. The biotech has now begun to partner on assets underpinned by its other technologies. Avenzo Therapeutics struck a deal for a HER3xEGFR ADC based on DualityBio's bispecific platform last year. Genentech inked the Dupac agreement this week. DualityBio's fourth technology is an ADC platform for autoimmune diseases.