GSK has acquired the rights to Syndivia’s preclinical antibody drug conjugate (ADC), which is in development for prostate cancer treatment, fuelling the ongoing industry buzz for the promising anti-tumour modality.
GSK will pay French biotech Syndivia £268m ($357.37m) for the preclinical asset’s global rights, a fee that includes an upfront payment, as well as development and commercial milestones.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataSyndivia developed the prostate cancer drug hopeful using its GeminiMab conjugation technology, which the biotech claims can create a unique drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) hinge region site-specific ADCs.
In preclinical studies, the unnamed ADC has already proved its effectiveness in shrinking tumours without causing a proportional increase in significant side effects. Despite the growing use of ADCs, their toxicity has been a cause of hesitancy, with many pharma companies seeking mechanisms with a more targeted approach.
GSK said Syndivia’s ADC could provide a targeted treatment directly to the tumour, along with a more easily accessible treatment in the community practice setting for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).
Approximately 1.4 million men worldwide are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and up to 20% develop advanced disease, castration resistance with metastases, within five years.
Despite the difficult-to-treat nature of mCRPC, advances have been made in the disease. This includes Novartis’ approved radioligand therapy Pluvicto, which has been shown to slow PSMA-positive mHSPC progression via a significant data readout at the recent 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Berlin.
GSK stated: “Targeted treatment options are limited, and standard of care options may be difficult to access in community practice settings, and can be poorly tolerated with modest efficacy outcomes.”
The British drug manufactuerer is already advancing its own pipeline of assets for prostate cancer treatment. This includes GSK’227, also an ADC, which is currently in a Phase II study in partnership with Hansoh.
“Prostate cancer represents a significant health burden and an emerging area of growth for GSK, where targeted therapies are urgently needed in metastatic castration-resistant settings,” said GSK’s global head of oncology Hesham Abdullah.
“The addition of this ADC builds on GSK’s growing portfolio and strengths in tumour-targeted technologies, including GSK’227, our B7-H3-targeting ADC.”
ADC purchases continue
The ADC space has seen many billion-dollar deals as pharma companies look to shore up their pipeline with the emerging modality. Pfizer acquired Seagen for $43bn in December 2023 while MSD and AbbVie have also completed $10.8bn and $10.1bn deals in recent years.
While mammoth deals have cooled, there have still been notable transactions this year. In January 2025, Boehringer Ingelheim spent $1.3bn on a licensing deal with Synaffix for ADC technology on several undisclosed targets. In March, Taiho Pharmaceutical agreed to acquire Swiss-based ADC specialist Araris Biotech for up to $1.14bn.
Roche has signed three ADC deals this year, with the latest dating back to March via an agreement with Oxford BioTherapeutics that could surpass $1bn.
ADC content on Pharmaceutical Technology (or Clinical Trials Arena) is supported by Syngene. Editorial content is independently produced and follows the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Topic sponsors are not involved in the creation of editorial content.
