Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), as a core breakthrough in the field of precision cancer therapy, are known as the “magic bullets” of cancer treatment due to their unique advantages of “targeted delivery+potent killing”, effectively solving the pain points of high off target toxicity and narrow treatment window in traditional chemotherapy.

This year, the global ADC industry has officially entered a dual explosion period of technological iteration and commercialization. The technological form has upgraded from the traditional ternary structure to diversification, and the market competition has presented a new pattern of “cross-border giant mergers and acquisitions integration, Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies breaking through and going global”. This article is based on global industry data, systematically disassembling the five cutting-edge technology directions of ADC, analyzing the global and Chinese market competition patterns, and providing professional references for industry practitioners and investment and financing decisions.

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1、 Core Overview of ADC Pharmaceutical Industry

The core competitiveness of ADC drugs lies in the three core components of antibodies, linkers, and payloads, and the current industry innovation presents a dual feature of “component optimization+morphological breakthrough”. Connecting sub domains, gradually iterating from traditional cleavable types to stable and conditionally cleavable types, effectively reducing off target toxicity and improving drug stability in vivo; In the field of payload, new cytotoxic drugs and immune modulators continue to emerge, further enhancing tumor killing efficiency; The antibody form breaks through the limitations of monoclonal antibodies and extends to bispecific and multispecific antibodies, greatly expanding the targeting range and therapeutic scenarios of ADC drugs, and promoting the upgrading of technology platforms towards refinement and diversification.

As the commercial value of the ADC track continues to be released, multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs) are rapidly filling the pipeline gaps and consolidating their leading positions through massive mergers and acquisitions, external cooperation, and other means. Among them, Pfizer’s acquisition of Seagen, AstraZeneca, and deep cooperation with Daiichi Sankyo has become a landmark event in industry mergers and acquisitions, promoting the concentration of the global ADC market. At the same time, China’s ADC research and development capabilities are rapidly rising, and it has entered the world’s top tier in target layout, coupling technology, clinical research, and other fields. License out has become the core path for domestic ADCs to go global. Cases such as the cooperation between Kolombotai and Merck with over 10 billion US dollars, and the original ADC from Rongchang Biotechnology going global demonstrate the global competitiveness of China’s ADC technology.

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2、 Comparison of Five Frontier Technologies

In 2026, technological innovation in the ADC track will enter an explosive period. In addition to continuous optimization of conventional ADCs, new forms of technology such as dual drug ADCs, dual antibody ADCs, IO+ADC combination therapy, and XDC will rapidly emerge. There are significant differences in research and development barriers, clinical progress, and market potential in different technological directions, which are the core considerations for investment and financing layout. The specific breakdown is as follows:

2.1 Conventional ADC: Optimization Breakthrough in the Red Sea Race, Focusing on Clinical Certainty

The conventional ADC adopts the traditional ternary structure of “antibody+linker+cytotoxic payload”, which is the mainstream form in the current market, with high technological maturity and sufficient clinical verification, and has achieved large-scale commercialization. In terms of target layout, HER2, TROP2, Nectin-4, and others have become the red ocean targets, with particularly fierce competition. Among them, AstraZeneca’s DS-8201 (trastuzumab), which cooperates with Daiichi Sankyo, has redefined the treatment standards for HER2 positive tumors with optimized molecular design and excellent clinical data, becoming an industry benchmark.

Domestically, companies such as Kelun Botai, Hengrui Pharmaceutical, and Rongchang Biotechnology have a deep layout, relying on independent coupling technology platforms to launch multiple candidate drugs targeting popular targets. Some of them have entered the late stage of clinical trials or achieved market launch, and have made breakthroughs in both domestic substitution and overseas markets. From the perspective of investment and financing, although the competition in this field is fierce, enterprises with high clinical certainty, short commercialization cycles, and a focus on technology optimization and indication expansion still have high investment value.

2.2 Dual drug ADC: a potential blue ocean during the technological breakthrough period, highlighting the long-term layout value

Dual drug ADC is the technological upgrade direction of traditional ADC, with the core design of coupling two cytotoxic payloads with different mechanisms of action to the same antibody. Through the synergistic effect of the payloads, it improves tumor killing efficiency, overcomes drug resistance, and solves the industry pain point of single payload drug resistance in conventional ADC.

At present, dual drug ADCs are still in the early stages of development, with limited publicly available clinical cases. The core technical difficulty lies in matching the release kinetics of two types of payloads – achieving synchronous release and synergistic effect in the tumor microenvironment, while avoiding increased toxicity caused by payload superposition. Due to the extremely high technological threshold, the current layout of enterprises mainly consists of multinational pharmaceutical companies and a few leading innovative pharmaceutical companies, with high research and development risks. However, as an important direction for ADC technology iteration, it has broad long-term development potential and is a key area for early investment and financing layout.

2.3 Dual Anti ADC: Precision Upgrade, Opening up a New Race of Differentiated Competition

Dual antibody ADC uses bispecific antibodies as carriers, which can simultaneously target two different antigens on the surface of tumor cells. Its core advantage lies in improving tumor recognition specificity, reducing off target toxicity, promoting antibody internalization efficiency, and enhancing tumor killing effect. Compared with conventional ADC, it has better safety and effectiveness.

In January 2026, Baili Tianheng submitted the world’s first dual antibody ADC market application and was accepted by China’s NMPA, marking the official entry of this technology into a critical period of commercialization and opening up a new pattern of ADC research and development. Currently, domestic companies such as Kangnuo, Lepu Biotechnology, Anmai Biotechnology, and foreign Zymeworks are actively expanding their focus on the development of dual antibody ADCs targeting popular targets such as HER2 and TROP2. Some candidate drugs have entered the clinical stage. This direction combines the dual advantages of bispecific antibodies and ADCs, with distinct differentiation features and high technical barriers and investment value.

2.4 IO+ADC Combination Therapy: Synergistic Enhancement, Accelerated Commercialization Implementation

IO+ADC combination therapy refers to the use of ADC drugs in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies). The core logic is that when ADC drugs kill tumor cells, they can induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), activate the body’s anti-tumor immune response, and form a synergistic effect of “1+1>2” with IO drugs, expanding the scope of treatment and improving treatment efficacy.

At present, this direction has become a hot research and development topic in the industry, and clinical progress continues to break through: the “PD-L1 ADC+anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody+anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody” triple therapy of Fosun Pharma Hanlin was approved for clinical trials by China NMPA in January 2026; MSD’s “Keytruda+Padcev” combination is expected to release the phase III clinical data of myometrial invasive bladder cancer perioperative treatment at the recent ASCO GU conference to further verify the clinical value of combined treatment. Domestic companies such as Hengrui Pharmaceutical and Junshi Biotechnology, relying on their PD-1/PD-L1 product advantages, actively layout combination therapy plans, combining clinical certainty and commercial potential, and are currently the core hotspots of investment and financing.

2.5 XDC: Breaking through the boundaries of carriers and opening up new spaces for diversified development

XDC (Extended Drug Conjugates) are conjugate drugs that surpass traditional antibody carriers, mainly including RDC (Radioisotope Conjugated Drugs), PDC (Peptide Conjugated Drugs), etc. The core advantage lies in breaking through the limitations of traditional ADC carriers, having stronger tumor penetration, lower immunogenicity, and lower research and development production costs. They can achieve “diagnosis and treatment integration” and expand the application scenarios of conjugate drugs.

Worldwide, two PDC drugs, Lutathera and Pepaxto, have been launched. Lutathera has validated the clinical value of PDC in radioactive nuclide delivery, while Pepaxto has provided clinical experience for subsequent product optimization. On the domestic front, companies such as Dongcheng Pharmaceutical and Baiaosaitu are leading in their layout. As a leading player in nuclear medicine (RDC) in China, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical relies on its profound technological accumulation and benefits from the trend of “integrated diagnosis and treatment”; Multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis hold a leading position in the RDC field globally. As an extension of the ADC track, XDC has unique advantages in the treatment of rare diseases and refractory tumors, and is an important direction for medium – and long-term investment and financing layout.

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3、 Global competitive landscape and investment and financing analysis

The current global ADC competition presents a pattern of “multinational giants leading and Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies rapidly breaking through”. Multinational pharmaceutical companies dominate with their technological, financial, and commercial advantages, while Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies rely on technological innovation and cost advantages to gradually increase their global share. At the same time, upstream enterprises in the industry chain also welcome development opportunities.

3.1 Global competitive landscape: Multinational giants and Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies work together in both directions

(1) Multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs): mergers and acquisitions to consolidate their leading position

AstraZeneca: Deeply bound to Daiichi Sankyo, with benchmark products such as DS-8201, it firmly holds the leading position in the ADC field. Its pipeline covers multiple popular targets such as HER2 and TROP2, and its technology and commercialization capabilities are globally leading.

Merck: By collaborating with innovative Chinese pharmaceutical companies such as Kolombotai, we have rapidly built a diversified ADC pipeline. At the same time, relying on our own PD-1 monoclonal antibody advantages, we have laid out IO+ADC combination therapy to achieve synergistic development.

Pfizer: After acquiring Seagen, it obtained mature ADC products and technology platforms, quickly filled pipeline gaps, and entered the first tier of the industry, focusing on the research and commercialization of popular target products.

Novartis: With absolute advantages in the XDC field, especially RDC, relying on nuclear drug technology accumulation, we have laid out multiple RDC products and led the development of the XDC track.

(2) Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies: technological breakthroughs, going global and parallel commercialization

Kolombotai: independently developed and optimized fixed-point coupling technology platform, reached a cooperation of over 10 billion US dollars with Merck, and achieved external authorization of multiple ADC products, becoming a benchmark for domestic ADC going global.

Hengrui Pharmaceutical: With the richest ADC pipeline in China, covering targets such as HER2, TROP2, and Claudin 18.2, Hengrui Pharmaceutical has strong commercialization capabilities. Multiple products have been launched domestically, and its market share continues to increase.

Rongchang Biotechnology: The first domestic enterprise to achieve original ADC overseas, with products listed both domestically and internationally, high asset value, strong potential BD trading expectations, and outstanding long-term development potential.

Konya: Focusing on emerging targets such as Claudin 18.2, ADC research and development has made rapid progress. With a differentiated layout, it has an advantage in competition and significant growth potential.

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4、 ADC Industry Risk Warning

Although the ADC track has broad development prospects and investment potential, it is still affected by multiple factors such as research and development, market, and policies, and there are still the following risks that need to be focused on:

Risk of R&D failure: ADC drug development cycle is long, technical difficulty is high, clinical validation standards are strict, and some candidate drugs may have problems such as clinical data not meeting expectations and excessive toxicity, leading to R&D failure and affecting enterprise valuation and investment return.

Market competition risk: There are too many companies focusing on popular targets such as HER2 and TROP2, leading to intensified homogeneous competition. In the future, there may be price wars that squeeze companies’ profit margins and affect market share.

Policy uncertainty risk: The pressure of domestic medical insurance price reduction continues to increase, and there are differences in pharmaceutical regulatory policies among countries. At the same time, geopolitical factors (such as biosafety laws) may affect the research and development, production, and overseas expansion of ADC drugs, bringing potential impacts to industry development.

Commercialization risks: ADC drugs are priced high, market education is difficult, and some products may experience sales volume that falls short of expectations, channel layout obstacles, and other issues, affecting the company’s cash flow and profitability.

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5. Summary

ADC drugs, as the core track in the field of precision cancer therapy, have entered a critical stage of technological iteration and commercialization with their core advantages of “targeted delivery+potent killing”. The industry as a whole presents the development characteristics of “technological diversification, global competition, and refined layout”. On the technical level, conventional ADCs continue to be optimized, and new directions such as dual drug ADCs, dual antibody ADCs, IO+ADC combination therapy, and XDC are rapidly emerging. Technological barriers and differentiation advantages have become the core competitiveness of enterprises; In terms of competitive landscape, multinational pharmaceutical companies dominate through mergers and acquisitions and technological accumulation, while Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies break through through with technological breakthroughs and overseas layout, forming a two-way competitive situation.

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From the perspective of investment and financing, the long-term investment value of the ADC track is highlighted, and the core layout logic can focus on three major directions:

One is an innovative enterprise with core technology and patent barriers, and clear clinical progress;

The second is to focus on differentiated tracks and growth oriented enterprises with unique competitive advantages;

The third is CRO/CDMO enterprises in the upstream of the industry chain that benefit from the industry’s R&D boom.

At the same time, it is necessary to focus on potential risks such as research and development failures, market competition, policy fluctuations, and less than expected commercialization, in order to achieve a balance between risk and return. Overall, the ADC industry is in a golden period of rapid development. With continuous technological iteration and commercialization, it will continue to release investment value and provide broad development and layout space for industry practitioners and investors.

 

Disclaimer: This research report is based on publicly available data, clinical research progress, and market trends in the global ADC industry. It is for investment and financing reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.

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