ArriVent ups its ADC bet

ArriVent already has ADC deals with Aarvik and Alphamab, and on Tuesday it added to these, licensing Lepu Biopharma’s MRG007 outside Greater China. There aren’t many details about the project, which hits an undisclosed gastroinestinal target; an IND submission is planned for the first half of the year, with an initial focus on colorectal, pancreatic and “other GI cancers”. ArriVent’s deal echoes GSK’s recent swoop for DualityBio’s DB-1324, which is also an ADC against an undisclosed GI target. It’s possible that both assets hit Claudin18.2, a hot area for gastric research. A look at the recent business development activity in ADCs shows a slew of deals in January and December alone, although many are technology-based agreements with undisclosed fees. ArriVent didn’t say how much it had spent on MRG007, only disclosing $47m in up-front fees and near-term milestones. The group’s other ADC efforts are also preclinical projects with mystery targets: ARR-002, being developed with Aarvik, is expected to start IND-enabling studies by early 2025, while its unnamed Alphamab-partnered assets are earlier in development. ArriVent’s lead project, though, is the EGFR TKI firmonertinib, in phase 3 in NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertions and a new focus on PACC mutations. 

Notable recent ADC deals

Source: OncologyPipeline.