Roche Commits $510M Upfront in Up-to-$15B ADC Deal with Hansoh

By Sophie Lindqvist

Roche will pay Shanghai-based Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group $400 million upfront, plus $110 million on the deal's first anniversary next year, under a new antibody-drug conjugate collaboration worth more than $15 billion in development, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments, plus tiered royalties, the companies announced October 19.

The agreement is the second between the two companies in just over a year, and it makes Hansoh one of the most richly optioned Chinese biotech partners of any Western pharmaceutical group.

What does the deal cover?

The collaboration spans an unspecified number of ADCs "across multiple cancer types," with the companies withholding both cancer types and targets. Its structure is concrete:

• Two preclinical Hansoh ADC programs.
• "Multiple" ADC programs against Roche-identified targets, all built on Hansoh's ADC technology platform.

Hansoh will lead early development through completion of global Phase Ia trials. Roche then takes over worldwide development, excluding China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, where Hansoh retains all development, registration and commercialization rights. Outside those territories, Hansoh may select up to two programs, contribute to their development and collect unspecified "incremental upside" payments tied to U.S. commercialization.

"Expanding our strategic collaboration with Hansoh marks an important step in advancing our ADC vision," Boris L. Zaïtra, head of Corporate Business Development at Roche, said in a statement. "Exploring next generation ADCs is one of the most compelling frontiers in oncology today."

Eliza Sun, executive director of Hansoh's board, said: "Building on the ADC partnership we announced last year, we are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with Roche."

What did the first deal deliver?

The 2024 agreement, signed a year and two days before this one, gave Roche an exclusive global license, excluding China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, to HS-20110, an ADC for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors. HS-20110 pairs a humanized anti-CDH17 monoclonal antibody with a covalently conjugated topoisomerase inhibitor payload. Roche paid $80 million upfront and committed up to $1.45 billion in milestones plus royalties.

HS-20110, listed in Roche's pipeline under the placeholder name "CHU," is now in two trials: a global Phase I/II in advanced colorectal cancer in China with primary completion December 31, 2029, and a global Phase I in advanced solid tumors in the U.S. and China with primary completion December 31.

How did investors respond?

Hansoh shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose nearly 10% over two days, from HKD 31.38 ($3.94) to HKD 34.38 ($4.31). Roche's RO bearer shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange climbed from CHF 384.60 ($463.21) to CHF 395.60 ($476.46); ROP participation certificates rose from CHF 379.20 ($456.67) to CHF 389.90 ($469.56).

What else sits in the ADC pipeline?

Roche's pipeline, last updated July 23, discloses four cancer ADCs:

• RG6648, a cMET-targeting ADC with antibody payload YL0010014, designed to arrest tumor cell division and induce apoptosis. MediLink licensed it as YL211 in 2024 for up to nearly $1 billion, including $50 million upfront and near-term milestones.
• RG6810, a DLL3-targeted ADC with a topoisomerase I payload for small cell lung cancer, licensed from Innovent Biologics for $80 million upfront and up to $1 billion in milestones plus tiered royalties.
• Tam-Peli (tambotatug pelitecan or RG6919), a B7H3-targeting ADC for solid tumors, licensed worldwide except China, Hong Kong and Macau from MediLink in January.
• HS-20110, described above.

The Tam-Peli data carry weight for portfolio planners. In the Phase III TAISHAN-302 trial (NCT06612151) in Chinese patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer after platinum-based chemotherapy, Tam-Peli cut the risk of death by 54% against topotecan: median overall survival of 13.3 versus 9.4 months, stratified HR=0.46, p<0.0001. Median progression-free survival ran 7.4 versus 2.8 months, and response rates were 59.1% versus 9.7%. MediLink presented the results at the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul with simultaneous publication in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Why is Roche buying pipeline so aggressively?

The company markets two ADCs — Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) for HER2-positive breast cancer and Polivy (polatuzumab vedotin) for specific lymphomas. Analysts expect the pair to post a combined CHF 3.5 billion ($4.3 billion) this year, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Kadcyla is also under study with Tecentriq in the Phase III ASTEFANIA trial (NCT04873362) in high-risk early breast cancer.

That is modest cover for a looming patent cliff. Ocrevus, Roche's best-selling multiple sclerosis drug, faces loss of exclusivity in 2027 after generating CHF 3.47 billion ($4.192 billion) in January-June sales and CHF 7.01 billion ($8.467 billion) in 2025.

Since August, Roche has also struck deals with:

• DualityBio (August): Genentech collaboration on ADCs using the DUPAC platform, $45 million upfront plus over $1 billion in milestones.
• Rona Therapeutics (October 13): RNAi obesity and metabolic candidate targeting ALK7, up to $1.16 billion, $100 million upfront and near-term.
• Defand Therapeutics (October 7): molecular glue discovery for cancer and immunology targets, undisclosed value, reportedly up to about $1 billion with up to $10 million upfront.
• Ataviastik Bio (September 24): small molecules for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, up to $1.9 billion, $70 million upfront.
• Earendil Labs (September 24): bispecific antibodies in oncology with Genentech, up to $1.15 billion, $55 million upfront.

How large is this deal by market standards?

At up to $15.5 billion, the Hansoh agreement ranks among the largest Western pharma–Chinese biotech partnerships but not at the top. AstraZeneca's January deal with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group — up to $18.5 billion with $1.2 billion upfront — covers eight injectable obesity and type 2 diabetes programs, on top of a separate up-to-$1.77 billion siRNA kidney-disease partnership launched in July.

In May, Bristol Myers Squibb signed an up-to-$15.2 billion collaboration with Hengrui Pharma covering 13 early-stage programs — four oncology/hematology assets from Hengrui, four immunology assets from BMS and five jointly discovered assets. The same month, Pfizer inked an up-to-$10.5 billion oncology alliance with Innovent Biologics spanning 12 early-stage and de novo antibodies and ADCs.

The milestone-heavy structure of the Roche-Hansoh deal means the $15 billion headline is a projection, not cash: $510 million is committed, and the rest depends on programs that in part have not yet reached the clinic.