SUZHOU, China, May 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MediLink Therapeutics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. ("MediLink"), a clinical-stage biotech company, today announces a new strategic collaboration with BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, "BioNTech"), a next-generation immunotherapy company pioneering novel therapies for cancer and other serious diseases, under which BioNTech will receive an exclusive option to an exclusive global license to apply MediLink's TMALIN® antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform, for several novel targets chosen by BioNTech.

Under the terms of this new agreement, MediLink will receive an upfront payment of $25 million and is eligible to receive additional development, regulatory and sales milestone payments potentially totaling up to $1.8 billion, as well as tiered royalties on potential future global annual net sales. As part of the agreement, MediLink will hold the right of first negotiation for future collaboration of these ADC product candidates if BioNTech wishes to exclusively license or assign rights in such ADC product candidates solely on the Mainland China market or Mainland China market together with one or more of the markets including of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Macau SAR or Taiwan region.

In October 2023, MediLink and BioNTech entered into a strategic collaboration and global license agreement to develop BNT326/YL202, a next-generation anti-HER3 ADC. Both parties have decided to expand their collaboration and have reached this new platform collaboration license agreement.

The expansion of the collaboration marks a further consolidation of the strategic partnership between MediLink and BioNTech, laying a new foundation for the mutual R&D collaboration in the ADC field.

About MediLink Therapeutics

MediLink Therapeutics, founded in 2020, is a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to developing conjugated drugs with global competitiveness. MediLink has developed its proprietary TMALIN® ADC technology platform, enabling the generation of homogeneous ADC with high drug-antibody ratio and improved therapeutic window for the treatment of solid tumors. MediLink aims to provide improved treatment options for global patients and address unmet medical needs. The company is headquartered in Suzhou, China and has established R&D sites in Shanghai, China and Boston, US.

About TMALIN®

The Tumor Microenvironment Activable LINker-payload (TMALIN®) is an innovative ADC platform technology developed by MediLink Therapeutics with proprietary intellectual property rights. It employs dual cleavage mechanisms, operating both extracellularly in the tumor microenvironment and intracellularly in lysosomes. TMALIN® possesses high hydrophilicity, homogenous DAR value, excellent plasma stability, and specific tumor accumulation characteristics. In preclinical efficacy and toxicology studies, ADCs developed based on TMALIN® exhibited significant therapeutic window. So far, several ADC products based on TMALIN® platform have entered into clinical trial stage.