A year after going public, ArriVent BioPharma is continuing to bolster its antibody-drug conjugate pipeline via licensing deals. The latest involves handing Lepu Biopharma $47 million in near-term cash for a preclinical candidate aimed at gastrointestinal cancers.
The ADC in question, dubbed MRG007, has shown “robust antitumor activity in preclinical models of GI cancers and a favorable therapeutic index based on IND enabling studies,” ArriVent explained in a Jan. 21 release.
As well as the $47 million from a combination of upfront cash and a near-term milestone payments, ArriVent will be liable to pay Shanghai-headquartered Lepu up to $1.16 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones for the rights to develop and commercialize MRG007 outside of greater China.
The plan now is to get the nod from the FDA in the first half of the year to begin U.S. human trials of the ADC in colorectal, pancreatic and other GI cancers.
"We believe MRG007 is a potential best-in-class ADC for the treatment of GI malignancies based on preclinical and IND enabling studies,” ArriVent’s CEO Bing Yao said in the release. “Expanding our pipeline with MRG007 furthers our mission to develop novel medicines for cancers with high unmet needs worldwide and accelerates our ADC portfolio by adding a program which plans to enter the clinic in the near-term.”
Pennsylvania-based ArriVent is on a mission to bring China-developed drugs to Western markets via in-licensing deals. The biotech’s lead asset, furmonertinib, is being developed for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor received approval in China in 2021 to treat locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC.
To this end, ArriVent joined the Nasdaq via a $175 million IPO a year ago. Since then, the company has avoided the fate of many of its biotech peers by keeping its valuation above water—the company’s stock ended Tuesday trading at $25.31, compared with its debut price of $18 per share in January 2024.
Its first year as a publicly listed company has also seen a concerted effort to bulk out its portfolio, including a $100 million biobucks deal with Aarvik Therapeutics to work on an undisclosed “novel oncology drug” as well as a $615.5 million deal with Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals to collaborate on multiple ADCs.