Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a mature technology. The first ADC, Mylotarg, was initially approved in 2000, and there are now 14 approved agents in both leukemias and solid tumors. According to Clarivate’s Cortellis Drug Discovery & Intelligence, those drugs collectively accounted for $13.55 billion in sales in 2024 – a figure that Cortellis projects will rise to $16 billion in 2025.

Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. announced Oct. 21 the signing of a license deal to codevelop, manufacture and commercialize two of Phrontline Biopharma Suzhou Co. Ltd.’s novel bispecific dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates.

The 2025 Annual Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) featured a track on tumor-agnostic therapies – the first time such a track has been included at ESMO, or at any major medical oncology meeting. “It’s a milestone,” Vivek Subbiah told the audience at a session on how to accelerate tumor-agnostic drug development.

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Aimedbio Inc. announced Oct. 16 the signing of a potential $991 million deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to license out its novel preclinical ADC asset targeting solid tumors, including KRAS mutations, which is set to enter phase I study next year.

A year and half from its inception, Adcytherix SAS has raised a €105 million (US$122 million) series A, enabling it to take the lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) program into clinical development next year.

Antibody-drug conjugate specialist Tubulis GmbH has raised a hefty €308 million (US$356 million) series C to expand clinical development of TUB-040, positioning its lead program for use in additional indications and as an earlier line of therapy.

Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. struck another $1 billion-plus deal, this time for a HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), trastuzumab rezetecan (SHR-A1811), with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s subsidiary Glenmark Specialty SA.

Positive phase I results in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) from Ideaya Biosciences Inc. and partner Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. with IDE-849, a potentially first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate targeting delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) and topoisomerase 1, sharpened interest in the DLL3 mechanism, which gave Zai Lab Ltd. a phase Ia/Ib win this year in extensive-stage (ES) SCLC.

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ifinatamab deruxtecan produced a confirmed 48.2% objective response rate in a phase II study of previously treated patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.

Detailed data are expected later, but partners Biontech SE and Duality Biologics Co. Ltd. are celebrating a phase III interim analysis readout demonstrating that HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) trastuzumab pamirtecan hit the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer who have previously received trastuzumab and a taxane-based chemotherapy.