Roche and Hansoh Sign ADC Pact With $510 Million in Initial Payments and More Than $15 Billion in Potential Milestones

A cancer drug partnership with payments tied to progress

Roche has signed an agreement with China's Hansoh Pharmaceutical that promises $400 million upfront, another $110 million on the deal's first anniversary and potentially more than $15 billion in payments linked to the progress of experimental cancer medicines. The collaboration covers two existing drug candidates and additional programs built around targets proposed by Roche.

Hansoh's Hong Kong exchange announcement, dated October 19, 2026, says the agreement was signed on October 17. It assigns Hansoh responsibility for early development through global Phase Ia clinical trials, after which Roche will lead further development outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

The agreement is the companies' second collaboration involving antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs. These medicines combine an antibody that recognizes a target on cells with a powerful drug payload. The aim is to carry the medicine toward cancer cells, although clinical trials must establish how safely and effectively each candidate works.

Hansoh keeps development, registration and commercialization rights in its four retained markets. It can also choose to contribute to the development of up to two programs outside those territories in exchange for additional potential commercial returns in the United States.

The partnership expands Roche's access to Chinese drug discovery while giving Hansoh a route to international development without surrendering its domestic and nearby markets. Its largest payments depend on future achievements, including development progress, regulatory approvals and commercialization.

Closing remains subject to customary conditions, including the applicable waiting period under the United States Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and necessary regulatory filings. That law gives competition authorities time to examine certain transactions before they close.

How the money is structured

Hansoh's two specified initial payments total $510 million: $400 million upfront and $110 million on the first anniversary. Beyond those payments, the company is eligible for potentially more than $15 billion in milestones, according to both its exchange filing and its corporate announcement.

Milestones are payments triggered when a drug program reaches an agreed goal. In this deal, those goals relate to development, regulatory approval and commercialization. The published terms do not disclose the amounts attached to individual achievements, the full number of programs or the royalty rates.

Hansoh would also receive tiered royalties on potential future product sales. A royalty is a share of sales paid to the company that licensed the medicine or technology. A tiered arrangement uses different rates according to conditions set out in the contract.

The payment structure spreads the financial commitment across the life of the programs. Hansoh receives substantial funding at the beginning, while the much larger potential payments depend on the medicines advancing. For Roche, the arrangement provides access to several candidates and a technology platform, with later spending connected to their progress.

Two existing candidates and room for more

The portfolio starts with two Hansoh ADC programs in preclinical development. Preclinical work takes place before testing in people and helps researchers decide whether a candidate is ready to enter clinical trials.

Roche will propose targets for multiple additional programs using Hansoh's proprietary ADC platform. A target is a biological feature that a medicine is designed to recognize, such as a protein found on the surface of cancer cells. The platform is the technology used to build the resulting medicines.

This makes the collaboration broader than a license for one experimental treatment. Roche gains access to candidates Hansoh has already created and a way to develop further medicines around targets it selects. Hansoh supplies both early research capabilities and the technology needed to turn those choices into ADC programs.

The companies have not identified the two preclinical candidates or the additional targets in their announcements. Their stated scope is a portfolio of cancer drug programs, with the exact diseases and development schedules still to be detailed.

Where responsibility changes hands

Hansoh will lead each program through completion of global Phase Ia trials. This is an early stage of testing in people, generally focused on safety, tolerability and dose selection, while researchers may also look for initial signs of activity against cancer.

Roche then takes responsibility for further development worldwide outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The official terms set the handover at completion of Phase Ia, a more precise point than a broad reference to the end of Phase 1.

Hansoh retains all rights to develop the programs, seek regulatory registration and commercialize resulting medicines in its four reserved markets. Registration means applying to the relevant authorities for permission to market a medicine, supported by evidence about its quality, safety and effectiveness.

The split gives the companies distinct responsibilities while allowing the same drug programs to advance across different regions. Patients would gain access through the development and approval processes in their own markets, rather than through the signing of the licensing agreement itself.

Hansoh's option to contribute to as many as two programs outside its retained territories adds another layer. If exercised, that contribution would make it eligible for additional returns from commercialization of those programs in the United States. The announcements do not set out the contribution required or the size of that additional return.

A larger commitment after the first Roche deal

Roche and Hansoh first partnered on an ADC the previous year. That agreement concerned HS-20110, a candidate targeting CDH17 that was being tested in Phase 1 trials in China and the United States for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors.

The earlier deal included $80 million upfront and $1.45 billion in potential milestone payments for rights outside China. The new agreement's $400 million upfront payment is five times that earlier amount, while its scope expands from a named candidate to a portfolio and additional research programs.

Eliza Sun, executive director of Hansoh's board, described the agreement as an expansion of that relationship in the company's collaboration announcement.

Building on the ADC partnership we announced last year, we are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with Roche.

Boris L. Zaïtra, Roche's head of corporate business development, also presented the deal as part of the Swiss company's broader plans for ADCs.

Expanding our strategic collaboration with Hansoh marks an important step in advancing our ADC vision.

The dates and conditions that matter

Hansoh's exchange filing identifies three wholly owned subsidiaries as the parties signing with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Shanghai Hansoh Biomedical Co., Ltd., Changzhou Hansoh Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Hansoh Bio, LLC. The agreement belongs to a continuing commercial relationship, with several stages still ahead.

• Previous year: Roche and Hansoh announced their first ADC collaboration, involving HS-20110.
• October 17, 2026: The Hansoh subsidiaries signed the new strategic collaboration and license agreement with Roche.
• October 19, 2026: Hansoh published its exchange filing and corporate announcement.
• First anniversary of the agreement: The terms provide for a further $110 million payment.
• Completion of global Phase Ia trials: Roche is to take over further development outside Hansoh's retained territories.

The companies gave no closing date, deadline for completing Phase Ia trials or expected date for a marketing application. The next formal steps include satisfying the closing conditions, while the scientific work must move the candidates from preclinical development into testing in people.

The exchange announcement was issued under Hong Kong's rules on inside information. Hansoh's board said it considered the collaboration in the interests of the company and its shareholders and classified the transactions as revenue activities in its ordinary course of business.

Hansoh's wider research network

Hansoh's relationship with Roche sits alongside collaborations with GSK, Merck & Co. and Regeneron. Its research pipeline contains more than 40 innovative medicine candidates being assessed across more than 70 clinical trials.

The company increased research and development spending by 20.7% to 1.7 billion yuan, reported as about $253 million, in the first half of the year. That spending supports a business seeking to earn income from its own medicines as well as from licensing discoveries to international partners.

Hansoh says it has launched seven innovative medicines generating sales in China. Revenue from innovative medicines and collaborative products accounts for more than 80% of its revenue, according to its corporate announcement. The company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2019.

GSK's work with Hansoh includes ADCs aimed at B7-H3 and B7-H4, two biological targets being studied in cancer treatment. The B7-H3 candidate known as ris-rez recorded median overall survival of 18.5 months in a Phase 3 trial. Median survival is the point at which half the participants have lived longer and half have lived for a shorter period.

Ris-rez also produced a 61% overall response rate in a global Phase 1b trial. That measure describes the proportion of participants whose tumors shrank enough to meet the trial's response criteria. The survival and response figures come from different trials and measure different outcomes.

Roche is also reviewing spending in Germany

Roche's new commitment to Hansoh comes alongside a pause on future investment decisions in Germany. Daniel Steiners, the company's head in Germany, attributed that decision to planned savings in the healthcare system and called for more predictable government policy.

Steiners said planned relief for pharmaceutical companies that research and manufacture medicines, through changes to manufacturer rebates, would only partly offset the negative effects of the legislation. These rebates are discounts manufacturers must provide within the healthcare payment system.

Roche employs more than 18,000 people in Germany and is expanding its Penzberg site in Bavaria. The pause concerns future investment decisions; the company has not announced cancellation of projects already under way.

The two developments show how Roche is allocating money across different activities. The Hansoh agreement commits funding to access experimental medicines and research capabilities, while the German decision places future local investment under review. Roche has given no timetable for reassessing that pause.

What changes for patients and the companies

Hansoh gains substantial initial payments, potential royalties and milestone income while keeping rights in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Roche gains a larger role in selecting targets and developing future ADC medicines for other markets.

Patients may eventually benefit if the programs produce treatments that succeed in trials and win regulatory approval. The immediate change is in who funds and carries out the research. The two existing candidates are still at the preclinical stage, so evidence from human trials remains ahead.

Roche's repeat partnership also gives Hansoh a larger role than supplying a single candidate. Its platform will support multiple programs, and its teams will remain responsible through the initial global clinical stage. The option to contribute to two programs outside its retained markets could extend that involvement further.

The practical milestones now are closing the transaction, advancing the candidates into clinical testing and completing the early trials that trigger the transfer of development responsibility. Those steps will determine how much of the agreement's potential value becomes payable and which medicines move toward patients.

Key Points

• Hansoh and Roche signed the agreement on October 17, 2026, and announced it on October 19.
• Hansoh is to receive $400 million upfront and $110 million on the first anniversary, plus potentially more than $15 billion in milestones and tiered royalties.
• The portfolio includes two preclinical ADC candidates and additional programs built around Roche's proposed targets.
• Hansoh leads development through global Phase Ia trials and retains rights in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
• Roche leads further development elsewhere, with Hansoh able to contribute to up to two programs for additional potential returns in the United States.
• Closing requires regulatory steps, and no clinical completion or medicine approval dates have been announced.