Pathos AI has signed a $125 million deal for another bispecific antibody drug conjugate (ADC) from Alphamab Oncology, and has also brought on the other Big Pharma partner, AstraZeneca.
The transaction focuses on Alphamab’s TROP2/HER3 ADC, JSKN016, which is already in phase 3 trials in China. Pathos said it found JSKN016 to be a good fit for its pipeline using its artificial intelligence decision platform, Foundry.
AI-Driven Candidate Selection
According to the New York-based firm, Foundry is “thousands of AI agents working in parallel, driven by Pathos’ proprietary AI models, to analyze biological, clinical and real-world data at scale.”
“JSKN016 is a next-generation bispecific ADC that has the potential to fill an important unmet medical requirement in a variety of solid cancers, and we are pleased to be advancing it with Alphamab,” Pathos CEO Iker Huerga said in a press release.
This program was discovered via Foundry, the platform we still use to inform portfolio decisions throughout our clinical pipeline. It’s a team effort to provide patients with differentiated therapies,” Huerga continued.
Financial Terms and Clinical Progress
In addition to the $125 million in upfront cash for the licence to JSKN016 outside of Greater China, Pathos agreed to pay milestones of up to $2.09 billion, and tiered royalties if JSKN016 does get to market.
Alphamab, which sells Enweida, an injected PD-(L)1 inhibitor, and an HER2 bispecific anbenitamab in China, is already testing a JSKN016 intravenous infusion in a phase 3 trial for triple-negative breast cancer, and is conducting phase 1 trials with a subcutaneous version.
Partnership with AstraZeneca
In another sign of the company’s therapy diversification strategy, Pathos today announced it acquired a second therapy into its pipeline in a separate agreement with AstraZeneca. Both companies will be collaborating on AZD4241, AstraZeneca’s preclinical proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) drug for patients with estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
Pathos didn’t offer any financial details in its release, but said the U.S. company would assume responsibility for taking the therapy into the clinic.
“Foundry’s mission is to create the trial that demonstrates that match, matching this drug to the biology of the patients that need it,” the CEO added.
Both AZD4241 and JSKN016 will enter the pipeline with prostate cancer and multiple myeloma as development targets, and also include in the pipeline a CBP/p300 inhibitor program, called pocenbrodib, that was licensed from Novo Nordisk in 2023. There is also DO-2, a MET kinase inhibitor that Pathos won in its majority stake in Belgium’s DeuterOncology, which is targeted to patients with MET-driven cancers.
Pathos’ website also includes a brain-penetrant inhibitor of PRMT5 called P-500, which was licensed by Pathos in 2024 from Prelude Therapeutics. The company’s most recent fundraise was a $365 million series D back in May 2025, which came seven months after a $62 million series C.
Pathos AI has completed a major $2.2 billion deal involving Alphamab Oncology and AstraZeneca, highlighting the growing role of artificial intelligence in pharmaceutical research and drug development.
The agreement represents a significant step for Pathos AI as AI-powered platforms increasingly become part of strategic partnerships between biotechnology companies and global pharmaceutical organizations.
Pathos AI and AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Pathos AI is focused on applying artificial intelligence to drug discovery and development. Its technology is designed to help researchers analyze complex biological and clinical information and identify potential therapeutic opportunities.
The growing interest in Pathos AI reflects a wider shift in the biopharmaceutical industry, where companies are increasingly using AI to improve research efficiency and accelerate the development of new medicines.
