ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates) are the talk of the town, with China's Medilink Therapeutics kicking off the new year by announcing a potential $1 billion deal with Roche.

Back to Taiwan, OBI Pharma also recently announced that its OBI-992 TROP2 has been approved by the US FDA for a phase I/II trial, which has attracted attention for being ahead of domestic pharma companies. Immunwork and TE-Meds, led by Dr Tse-Wen Chang, a renowned expert in antibody research, will also hold an investor conference on 11 January, following the announcement of its latest ADC platform, which will once again put ADC at the centre of attention.

ADCs are often prescribed as precision-guided missiles that can kill cancerous tumours, but they also present significant development challenges due to their technological complexity.

According to GlobalData, the global oncology ADC market is estimated to reach $9.7 billion in 2023 and $36.0 billion in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.5%.

In 2020, Gilead acquired Immunomedics, which is developing Trodelvy, for $21 billion; Daiichi Sankyo licensed DS-1062 to AstraZeneca; and in 2023, Pfizer acquired Seagen, a company specialising in the development of ADCs, for $43 billion.

Taiwan's pharmaceutical sector has also had its share of ADC pipelines. In addition to the R&D institutes - NHRI, ITRI and DCB - companies such as OBI Pharma, Tanvex, Formosa Laboratories, Eirgenix, TE-Meds, CHO Pharma, Topmunnity Therapeutics, Krisan Biotech, Mycenax and GlycoNex have joined in the battlefield and CDMO services respectively.

OBI Pharma will be the first to enter the clinical stage with its OBI-992, an ADC for the treatment of cancer. GlycoNex had just completed a Phase I trial for its GNX102, which showed excellent safety and positive efficacy results as expected.