Low-key interest in ROR1 continues

Interest in ROR1-targeting ADCs continues, notwithstanding several industry setbacks, and despite the most advanced player, Merck & Co, having to work hard to find a therapeutic window for zilovertamab vedotin. The latest example of ongoing enthusiasm is Wednesday's ex-China licensing deal covering CSPC's SYS6005, an MMAE payload ADC that's in a phase 1 China solid tumour study. The molecule has been picked up by Radiance Biopharma, a private US biotech that a year ago licensed Biocytogen's anti-HER2 x TROP2 bispecific ADC YH012/RB-201. True, the outlay in the latest deal is minimal – just $15m up front – but the move follows several other low-key transactions for anti-ROR1 ADCs, including MabCare's ZL-6301 and Sutro's STRO-003. At the same time the space has seen the blow-ups of Boehringer Ingelheim's BI 3702025 (the result of the acquisition of NBE-Therapeutics) and of Oncternal Therapeutics, and ongoing troubles at Lyell. Merck paid $2.8bn for VelosBio, whose zilo-V it has taken into phase 3 in the lowest of three doses studied in phase 2.

Deal activity involving anti-ROR1 ADCs

Source: OncologyPipeline.