Asian Tech Press (Oct 13) -- Chinese biotech firm Medilink Therapeutics and German company BioNTech SE have entered into a collaboration to develop a next-generation ADC drug.

Suzhou-based Medilink Therapeutics announced on Thursday that it has reached a collaboration agreement with BioNTech, licensing to BioNTech the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize YL202, a new HER3-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), outside of the Greater China area.

The deal, which has a potential total value of more than $1 billion, will see BioNTech pay an upfront payment of $70 million, as well as additional development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments.

Founded in July 2020, Medilink Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company focused on antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) and related technologies

The company builds its ADC pipelines on its novel ADC platform technology, Tumor Microenviroment Activable LINker-payload (TMALIN®).