WuXi inks $1.5B GSK pact, a big biobuck bet but a blip in billions lost from US unverified list

GSK is tapping into WuXi Biologics’ T cell-engaging antibodies in a deal worth as much as $1.5 billion, as the UK drugmaker looks to follow suit of others in the T cell-engager field, which includes Amgen’s marketed cancer drug Blincyto.

Only $40 million of the GSK deal will initially go to the Shanghai-based contract research and manufacturing giant, but with a biobuck bet above $1 billion, the Big Pharma sees lots of potential. The pact is a boon to WuXi, which suffered a loss of billions in market value after being placed on the US Department of Commerce’s unverified list last February. WuXi was removed from the list last month.

Kicking off the deal is one preclinical bispecific antibody that targets a tumor-associated antigen on bad cells and CD3 expression on T cells, WuXi announced Thursday. CD3 is one branch of Amgen’s Blincyto bispecific, and it’s one part of the focus of Roche and Genentech’s Lunsumio. FDA cleared the bispecific as a third-line treatment for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma last month.

Three more antibodies are on the line for GSK. All are earlier in the discovery process. Some are bispecifics and some are multispecific T cell-engaging antibodies. As with most of these tie-ups, tiered royalties are on the line, should any of the antibodies make it to market.

GSK’s head of research, John Lepore, said the deal adds to the Big Pharma’s pipeline of tumor cell-targeting agents.

AstraZeneca also wagered a T cell-engager deal last year, willing to place more than $1 billion on the table for TeneoTwo. Meanwhile, Amgen pulled back on some of its T cell engagers last year.

On the bispecific front, GSK’s luck ran dry with Merck KGaA in a string of clinical failures in 2021.

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