- Expanded collaboration builds on Acepodia and Biocytogen’s recent co-development efforts to evaluate selected bispecific antibody and dual-payload ADC programs
BEIJING & ALAMEDA, Calif. & TAIPEI--BUSINESS WIRE--
Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Biocytogen, SSE: 688796; HKEX: 02315) and Acepodia (6976:TT), today announced that the companies have entered into an option and license agreement designed to enable the structured evaluation of bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (BsADC) programs to further advance the development of dual-payload bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (BsAD2Cs).
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The agreement grants Acepodia an option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license from Biocytogen for two BsADC programs. Under the terms of the agreement, Biocytogen is eligible to receive an upfront option fee and, upon Acepodia’s exercise of the option, additional payments including option exercise fees, development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on future product sales. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“This new agreement builds upon our recent co-development collaboration with Acepodia, which has focused on the evaluation and selection of leading bispecific antibody and dual-payload ADC candidates,” said Dr. Yuelei Shen, President and CEO of Biocytogen. “Based on the preclinical research conducted to date, we believe that the combination of Biocytogen’s RenLite® platform with Acepodia’s Antibody-Dual-Drugs Conjugation (AD2C) technology offers a compelling approach for the development of next-generation dual-payload bispecific ADCs.”
“This option-based framework allows us to systematically assess how dual-payload conjugation strategies can be applied to bispecific antibody formats,” said Sonny Hsiao, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Acepodia. “This collaboration reflects our focus on disciplined, data-driven AD2C platform expansion.”
The expanded partnership is intended to leverage complementary platform strengths to advance next-generation ADC designs with the potential to improve upon certain limitations observed in conventional ADC programs. The joint team is progressing towards candidate evaluation milestones, with advancement decisions informed by ongoing research results and Acepodia’s internal governance and option exercise criteria.
About Biocytogen
Biocytogen (SSE: 688796; HKEX: 02315) is a global biotechnology company that drives the research and development of novel antibody-based drugs with innovative technologies. Founded on gene editing technology, Biocytogen has established a dual-engine platform combining a fully human antibody library with an extensive target-humanized mouse model portfolio, enabling a systematic approach to accelerating global drug discovery and development.
Biocytogen has independently developed its proprietary RenMice® (RenMab™/ RenLite®/ RenNano®/RenTCR™/ RenTCR mimic™) platforms for fully human monoclonal/bispecific/multispecific antibody discovery, bispecific antibody-drug conjugate discovery, hu-VHH discovery, and TCR mimic antibody discovery, and has established a sub-brand, RenSuper™ Biologics, to explore global partnerships for an off-the-shelf library of >1,000,000 fully human antibody sequences against over 1000 targets for worldwide collaboration. As of June 30, 2025, approximately 280 therapeutic antibody and multiple clinical asset co-development/out-licensing/transfer agreements and over 50 target-nominated RenMice® licensing projects have been established around the globe, including several partnerships with multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs). Biocytogen pioneered the generation of drug target knock-in humanized models for preclinical research, and currently provides a few thousand off-the-shelf animal and cell models under the company's sub-brand, BioMice™, along with preclinical pharmacology and gene-editing services for clients worldwide. Headquartered in Beijing, Biocytogen has branches in China (Haimen, Jiangsu, Shanghai), the USA (Boston, San Francisco, San Diego), and Germany (Heidelberg). For more information, please visit https://biocytogen.com.
About Acepodia
Acepodia is transforming cancer and autoimmune disease treatment with first-in-class immune cell engagers that deliver enhanced and targeted potency through multiple conjugation platforms. Leveraging a family of bio-orthogonal click chemistry approaches originating from Nobel Prize laureate Carolyn Bertozzi’s lab, Acepodia’s platforms are designed to improve safety and offer broad applicability across hematologic and solid tumor cancers, as well as autoimmune diseases. Acepodia’s conjugation platforms are designed for modular integration across antibodies, immune cells, and payload architectures, enabling flexible application across diverse therapeutic modalities. By combining innovative science with a patient-centric vision, Acepodia aims to bring powerful, next-generation therapies to patients underserved by today’s treatments. For more information, please visit https://www.acepodia.com/.
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