WHWK News & Events

Biocytogen and Whitehawk Therapeutics announced a global collaboration to develop bispecific antibody-drug conjugates. Biocytogen will provide access to up to five bispecific antibodies using its proprietary RenLite platform, and Whitehawk will evaluate these in combination with its ADC linker-payload platform technologies. Whitehawk then has the option to advance any resulting BsADC candidates as part of its pipeline. Based on a common light-chain design, RenLite supports the discovery, screening, and optimization of fully human bispecific antibodies across diverse target combinations, while reducing the risk of light-chain mispairing and providing a robust molecular foundation for subsequent BsADC development. By bringing together the complementary capabilities of Biocytogen and Whitehawk, the collaboration aims to identify BsADC candidates with differentiated targeting profiles and therapeutic potential. Under the financial terms of the agreement, Biocytogen will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, as well as low single-digit royalties on net sales. Additional financial terms were not disclosed. If Whitehawk exercises its option to advance any resulting BsADC candidates, Whitehawk will hold global rights and full program control of the BsADCs.

Whitehawk Therapeutics announced the presentation of a real world analysis supporting the therapeutic potential of targeting seizure related homolog protein 6 with a next-generation ADC for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, including small cell lung cancer. These data will be presented in a poster at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology, ASCO, Annual Meeting, being held May 29-June 2, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. "SEZ6 demonstrates a compelling expression profile across SCLC and other neuroendocrine malignancies. In SCLC, it has levels of expression that are consistently high across disease stages and metastatic settings," said Afshin Dowlati, MD, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University. "The magnitude of SEZ6 expression relative to other therapeutic targets, along with its enrichment in neuroendocrine-high SCLC subtypes, supports its potential as an ADC target."