BioNTech is stepping on the gas as it expands its pipeline of cancer therapies. Only two weeks after the multi-million dollar deal with the US cancer specialist OncoC4, the Mainz-based biotech company is arranging another partnership – this time worth billions. From the Chinese biotech company Duality Bio, BioNTech secures two potential cancer drugs for the treatment of solid tumors, the company announced on Monday. Duality Bio will receive an upfront payment of $170 million and is eligible for performance-based payments of potentially more than $1.5 billion, as well as tiered royalties for potential future product sales.

BioNTech will receive worldwide commercial rights to the two funds, with the exception of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. However, Duality Bio has an option to co-commercialize one of the two product candidates, DB-1311, in the United States. The other, more advanced, DB-1303, is currently in the second of three phases of clinical development. It has received coveted "fast-track" designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is designed to accelerate the development and testing of new drugs.

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Both drugs belong to the class of so-called antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), which are intended to destroy cancer cells in a targeted manner and thereby avoid damage to healthy tissue. This therapy should be better tolerated than chemotherapy. Pharmaceutical companies such as the British Astra Zeneca and the Japanese Daiichi Sankyo with its breast cancer drug Enhertu therefore rely on this technology, the US drug manufacturer Pfizer had recently announced the acquisition of the biotech company Seagen – one of the pioneers in the field of antibody-drug conjugates – for 43 billion dollars.

BioNTech had already announced plans to expand its pipeline with further partnerships thanks to the billions in revenue from its corona vaccine. With the deal, the Mainz-based company is now also supplementing its oncology portfolio with antibody-drug conjugates and thus with a new class of drugs. "The addition of these two ADCs to our portfolio strengthens our immunotherapy pipeline and expands our capabilities in this area," said Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin. Just two weeks ago, BioNTech secured a new antibody from OncoC4 for the treatment of various solid tumors, for which the U.S. cancer specialist will receive an upfront payment of $200 million as well as other performance-related milestone payments and royalties.