Genentech has licensed DualityBio's DUPAC antibody-drug conjugate payload platform in a multi-program collaboration designed to generate next-generation ADCs against Genentech-defined oncology targets, with China-based Duality Biotherapeutics, Inc. (HKEX: 09606) receiving USD 45 million upfront and eligible for more than USD 1 billion in aggregate development, regulatory, and commercial milestones across all programs, plus tiered royalties on net sales.
Under the deal terms, DualityBio leads discovery and early global clinical development through Phase Ia, after which Genentech assumes sole responsibility for further clinical development and worldwide commercialization. Genentech receives an exclusive worldwide license to the collaboration ADCs. No specific programs or targets are named in the announcement; the number of programs is undisclosed, making per-asset milestone economics unquantifiable from the aggregate figure.
DUPAC — DualityBio Unique Payload Antibody Conjugate — is one of DualityBio's four proprietary ADC technology platforms and is focused on payloads with mechanisms of action distinct from the topoisomerase inhibitor and tubulin-disrupting payload classes underlying most currently approved ADCs. The platform encompasses multiple distinct payloads, including DUP5, DUP9, and DUP10, each paired with optimized linker technologies. The company describes the payloads as engineered for high potency, broad-spectrum activity, short systemic half-life, and a bystander effect suited to heterogeneous solid tumors. DualityBio says the platform is designed to retain antitumor activity in tumors that are resistant or less responsive to topoisomerase inhibitor-based ADCs — a patient population it describes as a large and growing area of unmet need as DXd-class ADCs move into earlier lines of therapy. Preclinical data on DUP5- and DUP9-based ADCs have been presented at AACR 2025 and AACR-NCI-EORTC 2025, among other conferences.