Crescent Biopharma has agreed to pay Kelun-Biotech $80 million for ex-China rights to an antibody-drug conjugate, positioning the biotech to test the asset in combination with its PD-1xVEGF bispecific.
Massachusetts-based Crescent went public and raised $200 million in June as part of a reverse merger with GlycoMimetics. Crescent secured the money to advance a drug candidate that it designed to have similar characteristics to Akeso and Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab, the front-runner in a bispecific race that has attracted big bets from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck & Co. and Pfizer.
Lagging behind the PD-1xVEGF leaders, Crescent has strengthened its hand by licensing Kelun’s integrin beta-6 (ITGB6)-directed ADC SKB105. The deal is worth up to $345 million in development milestones, and up to $902.5 million in sales-based payments.
Rights to Crescent’s PD-1xVEGF bispecific CR-001 are going in the opposite direction. Kelun will pay $20 million upfront, plus up to $30 million in development milestones, for the rights to CR-001 in greater China.
The arrangement supports the parallel generation of clinical data on CR-001 in global and Chinese trials. Crescent is aiming to start a phase 1/2 trial of CR-001 in solid tumor patients in the first quarter of 2026 and report proof-of-concept data one year later. Kelun is advancing SKB105, which Crescent calls CR-003, on a similar timeline. A phase 1/2 trial of the bispecific and ADC in combination is planned for 2027.
ITGB6 is expressed in a range of solid tumors, including lung and breast cancers. The presence of ITGB6 on tumor cells has led companies including Pfizer—through its Seagen buyout—Sutro Biopharma and Pinotbio to aim ADCs at the protein.
Crescent is also planning to study its bispecific in combination with another ADC, CR-002. The candidate is designed to deliver a cytotoxic topoisomerase inhibitor to PD-L1, a target that has been central to the immuno-oncology era to date. Crescent is aiming to start a phase 1/2 trial of CR-002 in the second half of 2026 and report proof-of-concept data one year later. Pfizer has a PD-L1-directed ADC in the clinic.
The biotech’s R&D strategy is informed by the work of companies with more advanced PD-1xVEGF bispecifics, allowing Crescent CEO Joshua Brumm to frame CR-001’s position behind the frontrunners as a strength rather than a weakness.
“It's a credit to the work that's been done ahead of us, but it does pay some dividends to be a very fast follower to learn from these lessons,” Brumm said on a call with investors to discuss the deal. “The combination approach to this, a key part of our strategy also, is going to be very beneficial to getting those best-in-class therapies across all available indications.”
Crescent will fund its studies using a $185 million private placement that it disclosed alongside the Kelun deal. Supported by investors including Forbion, Fairmount and Vestal Point Capital, Crescent has extended its cash runway into 2028. By then, data from Crescent and Kelun studies should have provided early indications of the promise of the biotech’s candidates, both as single agents and in combinations.