Eisai Boards Fast Boat To China In HER2-Targeting ADC Deal With Bliss

The Japanese drug maker is the second in the space of a month to partner up with a Chinese biotech firm for a HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, as ADCs gain more interest from large pharma firms.

Eisai announced a deal with BlissBio for the Chinese company's HER2-directed ADC • Source: Shutterstock

With the success of AstraZeneca PLC and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.’s Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab daruxtecan-nxki), a number of drug makers are hoping to get in on the HER2 game as well, in some cases looking to companies in China developing HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Japanese drug maker Eisai Co., Ltd. is the latest firm to take that route with a development partnership centered on Bliss Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Phase I/II ADC candidate.

Hangzhou, China-based BlissBio said 7 May that it had signed a clinical trial collaboration agreement with Eisai with an option for strategic collaboration for BB-1701, its eribulin payload-based ADC against HER2 for the treatment of various cancers

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