Fosun Pharma subsidiary Henlius Biotech has signed a $440 million biobucks deal with California-based Amberstone Biosciences to work on T-cell engagers (TCEs).

The agreement will see Amberstone apply its T-Mate platform to generate preclinical TCEs aimed at “up to two targets” to be selected by Henlius. The Shanghai-based company will then take over development and, if successful, commercialization.

In return, Amberstone will be in line for up to $440 million in total across an upfront payment and potential development, regulatory and sales milestones, although the companies didn’t offer a breakdown of the financials. The U.S. biotech will also get a slice of the royalties if any resulting TCE makes it to market.

TCEs are antibody-based therapeutics that can reprogram T cells for antigen-specific elimination of target cells. Most TCEs are approved for blood cancers, although some, like Amgen’s Imdelltra, are used to treat solid tumors such as small cell lung cancer.

One shadow over approved T-cell therapies has been adverse events such as cytokine release syndrome, and Amberstone said its T-Mate platform is designed to address these issues through an acidity-sensitive switching mechanism. This reduces T-cell activation in healthy tissues while “retaining therapeutic activity across a broad range of pH conditions found in solid tumors,” the biotech explained.

The biotech has backed up its thesis by pointing to preclinical studies suggesting its in-house TCE can kill tumor cells under tumor-like pH conditions with markedly reduced activity at the body’s normal pH. That TCE is due to enter the clinic in the first half of next year.

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