Formosa Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Almac Discovery Ltd. have announced a global licensing agreement for development and commercialization of ALM-401, a first-in-class engineered bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for the treatment of solid tumors characterized by the dual expression of EGFR and ROR1.

Jumping in for the first time to the hot antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space, Paris-based Ipsen SA pulled in exclusive global rights to a preclinical ROR1-targeting candidate from Sutro Biopharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $900 million. STRO-003, the first ADC to join Ipsen’s portfolio, contains an anti-ROR1 human IgG1 antibody (SP-11385) conjugated to an exatecan warhead, or payload.

Presage Biosciences Inc. has announced that the FDA has issued a study may proceed notification for testing a pre-GMP drug candidate with the company’s Comparative In Vivo Oncology (CIVO) platform. Owned by Pure Biologics, the drug candidate, PBA-0405, is a ROR1-targeting compound that has been engineered to induce tumor cell killing by cytotoxic immune cells.

Researchers from Sutro Biopharma Inc. presented the discovery and preclinical characterization of a novel receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), STRO-003, being developed for the treatment of cancer.

DUBLIN – Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is paying up to €1.18 billion (US$1.4 billion) to acquire antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer NBE-Therapeutics AG. The deal includes an undisclosed up-front payment, plus development and regulatory milestones linked to the progress of NBE’s pipeline of clinical and preclinical ADC programs.

Velosbio Inc., a San Diego-based company developing cancer therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), has raised $137 million in series B financing to support development of its lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), VLS-101, and continued expansion of its pipeline.