In $1.36B biobuck deal with GSK, Mersana touts 'biggest preclinical ADC deal ever'
Days after Enhertu reeled in another FDA nod, with the first-ever green light for HER2-low breast cancer, another antibody drug conjugate biotech claims it has secured the largest preclinical ADC pact to date for a single asset.
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo made waves with their nearly $7 billion collaboration back in spring 2019, but at that point, Enhertu was already nearing the FDA’s doors with clinical data. The latest ADC tie-up to enter the biopharma fray centers around a preclinical asset, Mersana Therapeutics’ XMT-2056.
Protopapas called the GSK collaboration the “biggest preclinical ADC deal ever” for a single asset. ImmunoGen, which will hear back from the FDA by Nov. 28 on its own ADC, inked a $1.7 billion biobuck deal with Eli Lilly in February, but that was for multiple potential targets.
Mersana itself signed a billion-dollar, backend-heavy deal earlier this year, coming together with Johnson & Johnson in a $40 million upfront agreement.
With the upfront cash from GSK and $225.1 million as of June 30, Mersana has enough money to bankroll operations into the first half of 2024, the biotech said Monday after the closing bell.
