Under the deal, Pathos gains ex-China rights and will fund development of the bispecific ADC, already in phase 3 testing for triple-negative breast cancer.
Pathos AI has entered a
"JSKN016 is a next-generation bispecific ADC with the potential to address significant unmet need across a range of solid tumors, and we are excited to advance it in partnership with Alphamab," said
Dr. Ting Xu, chairman and CEO of Alphamab Oncology, added in the release, “JSKN016 represents the best of our next-generation bispecific ADC platform … we are confident this collaboration will accelerate the global clinical advancement of JSKN016 and bring a potential breakthrough therapy to more patients with solid tumors."1
Alphamab granted Pathos an exclusive license to research, develop, manufacture, and commercialize JSKN016 in territories outside the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, with Pathos assuming all related development and commercialization costs. Alphamab retains full and exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize JSKN016 within the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.1
Under the agreement, Alphamab is entitled to a non-refundable upfront payment of $125 million and milestone payments of up to approximately $2.1 billion tied to development and commercialization milestones, plus tiered royalties at high-single-digit to low-double-digit percentage rates on aggregate annual net sales in Pathos's licensed territories.1
JSKN016 was identified and prioritized through Foundry, Pathos's proprietary AI-driven decision platform, which the company said uses thousands of AI agents working in parallel to analyze biological, clinical, and real-world data at scale, surfacing high-potential assets and helping design clinical trials and match patients to therapies.1 The candidate becomes the 4th clinical-stage program Pathos has advanced through the platform, expanding its pipeline to 4 assets across multiple solid tumor indications, including JSKN016; pocenbrodib, in development for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma; DO-2, for mesenchymal epithelial transition factor receptor-altered non-small cell lung cancer; and AZD4241, an estrogen receptor α proteolysis-targeting chimera for ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer being advanced with AstraZeneca.1
JSKN016 targets both TROP2 and HER3 on tumor cells, using a single-domain and
Multiple clinical studies of JSKN016 as monotherapy and in combination regimens are underway in lung cancer, breast cancer, and other indications, including an ongoing phase 3 study in triple-negative breast cancer, an ongoing phase 1b study of a subcutaneous formulation in China, and an ongoing phase 1 study of the subcutaneous formulation in Australia.1,2
The agreement adds to a growing set of licensing deals in which Western biopharmaceutical companies acquire ex-China rights to clinical-stage oncology assets originated by Chinese biotechs, a pattern increasingly used to access differentiated ADC and bispecific antibody platforms.3 For Pathos, the deal also represents a test of whether an AI-driven asset-selection and portfolio-management approach can be applied systematically across in-licensing decisions, rather than a single one-off transaction, as the company frames Foundry as the basis for its broader pipeline strategy across 4 now-active clinical programs.
