Chinese clinical-stage biotech company Duality Biologics announced on Monday that it has expanded its ongoing partnership with Adcendo ApS, a Danish biotech company focused on the development of first-in-class antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancers with high unmet medical need.

The expansion of the parties' strategic licence agreement includes Adcendo exercising its option to use Duality's technology platform in additional assets, further strengthening Adcendo's ADC pipeline.

Adcendo entered into the agreement with Duality in January 2023 to use Duality's proprietary DITAC (Duality Immune Toxin Antibody Conjugates) linker-payload platform for its uPARAP-ADC programme in mesenchymal cancers. In May 2023, Adcendo announced an MTA and option licence agreement to nominate ADCs against two novel ADC targets. Adcendo's exercise of this option results in additional ADC product candidates moving into development.

Michael Pehl, Adcendo CEO, said: "Our strategic collaboration with Duality allows us to progress with our aim to develop highly differentiated novel ADCs for the treatment of hard-to-treat cancers. The expansion of our first-in-class ADC pipeline built upon Duality's unique and clinically validated DITAC platform paves our way to becoming a leader in the field of ADC cancer therapy."