(Yicai) Jan. 3 -- Chinese drugmaker MediLink Therapeutics said it has inked a global cooperation and license deal on a next-generation antibody-drug conjugate with Swiss healthcare giant Roche Holding.

MediLink and Roche will develop YL211, a next-gen ADC candidate targeting mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor, the Suzhou-based firm announced yesterday. The c-Met inhibitor can be used for treating hepatocellular carcinoma, gastrointestinal cancer, and lung cancer, it added.

MediLink will work together with Roche Diagnostics China Technical Innovation Center to promote YL211 to enter phase I clinical trials, while Basel-based Roche will oversee the drug’s future global development and commercialization, the Chinese company said.

MediLink will soon get a downpayment and a milestone payment of USD50 million and receive another nearly USD1 billion potential milestone payment for the development, registration, and commercialization of the drug and loyalties based on its annual global net sales, it noted.

MediLink has collaborated with other multinational drugmakers in the past. In October, it penned a deal to grant German biotech firm BioNTech exclusive rights to develop, produce, and market its next-gen ADC candidate targeting the Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 3 outside of the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, with the deal’s potential value exceeding USD1 billion.

According to disclosed contract values since last year, Chinese drugmakers have made 26 transactions with overseas firms on innovative drugs going global, according to a report by Guolian Securities released last month. Twelve deals focus on ADCs, and nine on small-molecule drugs.

Editor: Martin Kadiev