Hansoh shares jump after Roche signs a cancer-drug deal with more than $15 billion in milestones

Roche will pay Hansoh Pharmaceutical $400 million upfront for a new set of experimental cancer drugs, the Chinese drugmaker said on Monday, Oct. 19, in a deal that could bring Hansoh more than $15 billion in milestone payments. Hansoh's shares rose more than 8% at one point in Tuesday morning trading in Hong Kong.

What Roche is paying for

Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group, a Chinese drugmaker listed in Hong Kong, said on Monday, Oct. 19, that it had signed a second partnership with Roche to develop antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, a type of targeted cancer drug. The agreement was signed on Oct. 17, according to Hansoh's filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Roche will pay Hansoh $400 million upfront and another $110 million on the deal's first anniversary. Hansoh is also eligible for "potentially more than US$15 billion" in milestone payments tied to development, regulatory approval and sales, plus tiered royalties on any drugs that reach the market.

The deal covers two Hansoh ADC programs that are still in preclinical testing, along with several more programs aimed at targets that Roche proposed, all built on Hansoh's own ADC technology. Hansoh will run early development through the end of global Phase Ia trials, the first stage of testing in people. Roche then takes over development everywhere except mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, where Hansoh keeps all rights.

Hansoh can also choose up to two of the programs and contribute to their development outside Greater China. In return, it would be eligible for additional upside from U.S. sales of those two drugs. The deal still needs the U.S. antitrust waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to expire before it can close.

A bigger second round

This is the second ADC agreement between the two companies in a year. In October 2025, Hansoh licensed Roche an experimental ADC called HS-20110, aimed at a protein called CDH17, for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors. That deal paid $80 million upfront, with up to $1.45 billion more in milestones, according to Hansoh's exchange filing at the time.

The new upfront payment is five times that amount, and the two fixed payments Hansoh is due by the deal's first anniversary come to $510 million. Most of the headline value is still conditional. Hansoh only gets milestone payments if the drugs move forward in trials, win approval and then sell, and the two Hansoh programs named in the deal have not yet reached human testing.

"Building on the ADC partnership we announced last year, we are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with Roche," Eliza Sun, an executive director of Hansoh, said in the company's announcement. Boris L. Zaïtra, Roche's head of corporate business development, said exploring next-generation ADCs is "one of the most compelling frontiers in oncology today."

How Hansoh's shares reacted

Hansoh announced the deal on Monday evening Hong Kong time, after the market there had closed, so Tuesday was the first chance for investors in Hong Kong to react. Hansoh shares rose more than 8% at one point on Tuesday morning, Oct. 20, to HK$34.38, gaining while the wider market fell, the Chinese financial news outlet Caiwen reported. Sina Finance put the stock at HK$34.18 shortly before 10 a.m. Hong Kong time, up 7.69%, on turnover of HK$316 million.

Those figures are from the morning session. The Hong Kong market does not close until 4 p.m. local time, or 4 a.m. ET.

Why ADCs matter to Roche

An ADC links an antibody, which seeks out a specific protein on cancer cells, to a toxic drug payload. The idea is to deliver chemotherapy straight to the tumor while sparing healthy tissue. Roche already sells two approved ADCs, Kadcyla and Polivy, which analysts expect to bring in a combined 3.5 billion Swiss francs, about $4.3 billion, this year, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.

Roche has also been signing more outside deals as it faces patent expirations on older blockbuster drugs. In August, its Genentech unit agreed to a deal worth up to $1 billion for ADCs from DualityBio, and earlier this month Roche signed an obesity-drug license worth up to $1.16 billion with China's Rona Therapeutics.

The Hansoh agreement adds to a run of large licensing deals between global drugmakers and Chinese biotech companies, including AstraZeneca's $18.5 billion obesity-drug pact with CSPC in January and Bristol Myers Squibb's $15.2 billion multi-program alliance with Jiangsu Hengrui in May.