Emergence Therapeutics

Emergence Therapeutics is a European biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancers with high unmet needs. The company's lead program, ETx-22, is a next-generation Nectin-4 targeting ADC designed to increase efficacy and minimize toxicity compared to existing therapies.

ETx-22 combines a highly specific antibody with optimized linker and payload technology from Synaffix's ADC platform, which Emergence licensed in September 2022 through a deal worth up to USD 360 million. This transaction demonstrates Emergence's commitment to advancing a pipeline of first-in-class and best-in-class ADCs beyond ETx-22 for treating high unmet-need cancers.

In December 2021, Emergence raised EUR 87 million in a Series A financing round to support the development of ETx-22 and expand its ADC pipeline. The company has partnered with Mablink Bioscience to utilize their proprietary PSARlink drug-linker technology for ETx-22, aiming to enable higher dosing and increased efficacy without exacerbating safety concerns. Emergence is initially developing ETx-22 for bladder, triple-negative breast cancer, as well as malignancies with moderate and low Nectin-4 expression levels like lung and ovarian cancer.

In August 2023, Eli Lilly and Company completed the acquisition of Emergence Therapeutics, with Heidelberg Pharma, a founding investor, receiving around USD 7 million from the transaction.