Two of Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB, SEHK:9688) and MediLink Therapeutics ("MediLink") announced a strategic partnership and signed an exclusive worldwide license agreement. Through this collaboration, MediLink exclusively granted Zai Lab and its subsidiaries the global development and commercialization rights of YL212, a novel DLL3 ADC program.
Under the terms of the agreement, MediLink will be eligible to receive certain upfront fees and development and sales-based milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on global annual net sales and potential third-party sublicensing payments. Zai Lab will be responsible for all the development and commercialization activities globally.
YL212 is an innovative DLL3 ADC discovered by using MediLink's proprietary TAMLIN® platform. TAMLIN® is a next generation ADC platform designed to leverage the tumor microenvironment to overcome the challenges in current ADC drugs. DLL3 is an inhibitor of the Notch ligand that is overexpressed in small cell lung cancer(SCLC) and neuroendocrine tumors. YL212 has demonstrated an encouraging preclinical profile, and both companies will work diligently together to advance it into clinical studies.
"We are excited to collaborate with MediLink on this program. We will leverage our capabilities to advance the global development of YL212," said Rafael G. Amado, M.D., President, Head of Global Oncology Research and Development at Zai Lab. "This collaboration demonstrates our continued focus on developing cancer therapies including ADC drugs, further enriching our global oncology pipeline. It also complements our existing strong lung cancer portfolio. YL212 is advancing rapidly to the clinical stage, and we look forward to testing this compound in patients with limited therapeutic options."
"With a strong track record of developing and commercializing other first- and best-in-class therapeutics in oncology, Zai Lab is an ideal partner for MediLink on this project," said Liang Xiao, PhD, COO at MediLink. "This partnership is a great validation of our technology and capabilities. We are glad to collaborate with Zai Lab and look forward to bringing this innovative therapy to patients worldwide."
