Alphamab Oncology (康宁杰瑞生物制药) has licensed the overseas rights to its experimental cancer drug JSKN016 to US-based Pathos AI in a deal potentially worth more than US$2.2 billion, marking another major overseas licensing agreement for China’s rapidly expanding innovative-drug sector.
Under the agreement announced on August 4, Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphamab Oncology, will receive a non-refundable upfront payment of US$125 million and up to US$2.093 billion in development and commercialization milestone payments. The company will also receive tiered royalties ranging from high-single-digit to low-double-digit percentages of annual net sales in the licensed markets.
Pathos AI will obtain exclusive rights to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize JSKN016 outside the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, while Alphamab will retain all rights in Greater China. Pathos will cover the costs of overseas development and commercialization. Alphamab has also received a warrant allowing it to subscribe for US$62.5 million of Pathos AI’s preferred shares.
JSKN016 is a potential first-in-class bispecific antibody-drug conjugate targeting TROP2 and HER3, two proteins frequently overexpressed in solid tumors and associated with treatment resistance. The drug combines Alphamab’s bispecific-antibody and glycan-specific conjugation technologies to produce a stable ADC with a drug-to-antibody ratio of four.
The candidate is already in Phase III development for triple-negative breast cancer and is being evaluated in several lung- and breast-cancer studies. Phase I results presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting showed an objective response rate of 64.5% among triple-negative breast cancer patients treated at the recommended Phase II dose, with median progression-free survival reaching 7.6 months. The objective response rate among patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer was 51.7%.
The transaction also adds an AI dimension to the traditional Chinese drug-licensing model. Pathos AI is a clinical-stage oncology company whose Foundry platform uses thousands of AI agents to analyze biological, clinical and real-world data. The company said JSKN016 was identified and prioritized through Foundry, which will also support patient selection and global clinical-trial design.
For Alphamab, the partnership provides upfront capital and access to an overseas development platform while allowing it to retain the drug’s Greater China value. More broadly, the deal reflects how Chinese biotech companies are moving from importing international drug candidates to exporting original assets. Instead of relying solely on equity financing or building overseas commercial teams independently, an increasing number are using licensing agreements to convert domestic research pipelines into global development opportunities.