Ropes & Gray Advises Lepu Biopharma in ADC Licensing Agreement with ArriVent Biopharma for up to $1.6 Billion

In The News
January 22, 2025

Ropes & Gray represented Shanghai-based Lepu Biopharma in an exclusive license agreement with ArriVent BioPharma for novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) MRG007, in development for gastrointestinal cancers. The transaction was announced on January 21.

Under the agreement, Lepu Biopharma has granted ArriVent exclusive rights to develop and commercialize MRG007 outside of China. The first investigational new drug application is planned for the first half of 2025 with an initial clinical development focus on colorectal, pancreatic and other GI cancers.

Lepu Biopharma will receive an upfront payment and near-term milestone payments totaling $47 million in cash, and is eligible to receive up to $1.16 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones and tiered royalties on net sales outside of China.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by life sciences licensing partner Abigail Gregor, IP transactions counsel Jimmy Chen and life sciences associate Amanda White and included tax partner David Saltzman and tax associate Zhen Zhang.