ADC player Baili to go public in a different guise

After the mystery of the ADC Ipsen just picked up from a little-known private Chinese biotech comes a second Chinese ADC enigma: a company called Sichuan Biokin Pharmaceutical has just filed to float on the Hong Kong stock exchange. However, Biokin is none other than the holding company of Baili Pharmaceutical, which established a US presence in 2014 by way of SystImmune, a subsidiary. SystImmune is perhaps best known for being the originator of izalontamab brengitecan, a bispecific ADC against EGFR and HER3 that was licensed last December to Bristol Myers Squibb for an astonishing $800m up front, and the Hong Kong IPO is a clear move to build on this enthusiasm. HER3 has been a hot ADC target since Merck & Co licensed Daiichi Sankyo’s patritumab deruxtecan in October, though a US complete response letter for that project came as a blow; izalonta-b and Biokin's BL-B16D1 appear to be the only anti-HER3 ADCs that also target EGFR. The IPO document spells out Baili’s origins 28 years ago as a producer of traditional Chinese medicines, before a “strategic pivot” was made in 2010 into innovative biologicals. That efforts has now yielded a pipeline of seven ADCs, and six multi-specific naked MAbs.

Biokin's ADC pipeline

Note: *target formally not disclosed. Source: OncologyPipeline.

This story has been updated.