Two targets and two payloads? Two companies think so

The nascent field of dual-payload ADCs is about to get even more complex, judging by a deal to develop such molecules, struck on Tuesday between Biocytogen and Acepodia. These groups will join the eight or so companies already working on dual-payload ADCs, but will apparently be the first to develop such a project against two separate targets. The deal's financial terms are undisclosed, but the work will involve Biocytogen providing a bispecific MAb to which Acepodia will attach two payloads. China's Biocytogen has a pipeline of ADCs, including clinical-stage bispecifics against HER3 x Muc1, EGFR x cMet, and EGFR x TROP2. Acepodia is more famous for developing γδ2 T-cell therapies, including an anti-EGFR project that entered the clinic last year, but it also boasts an ADC conjugation technology that it claims can incorporate linker-payloads without complex antibody engineering, hence the promise of turning an existing Biocytogen MAb into an ADC. Dual-payload ADCs were given a boost last November when CrossBridge Bio emerged from stealth with a $10m financing round, but so far all the disclosed players are working on monospecific molecules – perhaps treading cautiously given that, as complexity and targets/payloads increase, so might toxicity.