Crescent Biopharma made a set of sweeping moves Thursday morning, notably with its strategy of bringing its PD-1xVEGF to China.
Boston-based Crescent signed a two-way deal with Kelun-Biotech, in which both companies will have access to some of each others’ assets. Crescent said that clinical trial preparation is underway and that it secured a $185 million private placement.
Investors appeared to appreciate Crescent’s moves. Its share price
$CBIO
rose 15% in premarket trading.
The news begins with Crescent
out-licensing
the Greater China rights to its cancer drug candidate CR-001 to Kelun-Biotech. Kelun will pay Crescent $20 million upfront and up to $30 million in milestones for the rights to the PD-1xVEGF drug candidate.
The experimental medicine will enter Phase 1 in the first quarter of 2026. But that’s far behind frontrunners such as Summit Therapeutics, Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck. Among others, UK biotech
Ottimo Pharma
is also in the race, with expectations of getting IND clearance within the next four weeks.
Meanwhile, Crescent will get access to Kelun’s integrin beta-6 (ITGB6)-directed ADC, called SKB105/CR-003, which is also slated to enter Phase 1/2 monotherapy trials in solid tumors next quarter. For ex-Greater China rights to the ADC, Crescent will pay Kelun $80 million upfront and promise up to $1.25 billion in biobucks.
The two assets in this deal will first undergo monotherapy studies and then be studied in combination in the first half of 2027, Crescent said. It has other ADCs in development that it will also pair up with CR-001, including the PD-L1-directed CR-002.
Also on Thursday morning, Crescent said it nabbed a $185 million private placement from Forbion, Fairmount, ADAR1 and other investors.
These updates all take place six months after Crescent became a public biotech via a reverse merger with GlycoMimetics. Crescent is one of multiple spinouts from Paragon, an antibody discovery shop funded by Fairmount that has pumped out other companies like Apogee, Spyre and Jade.
Crescent and Kelun’s deal follows a trend of Western biotechs going to China to pick up new medicines. Such deals have accounted for nearly one-third of drug licensing pacts this year.
But the two-way deal also marks somewhat of a rarity in that Crescent is out-licensing its PD-1xVEGF to China rather than in-licensing its candidate from the country. Summit, Bristol Myers and Merck all got their investigational medicines in the hot class via Chinese biotechs
Akeso
, Biotheus and LaNova Medicines, respectively.
For Kelun, it marks its latest $1 billion-plus ADC pact. The Chengdu-based drug developer’s main Western partner is Merck, which has forged a couple ADC alliances with the biotech. The duo’s most advanced candidate, called sac-TMT, is now
headed to China’s health regulator
.
