5th Annual Investor Primer on Antibody Drug Conjugates

The TD Cowen Insight

In this primer, we provide a detailed overview of the rapidly evolving Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADC) landscape. We review 200+ ADC assets, highlight key upcoming catalysts, and detail recent ADC-focused partnerships.

The Role of ADCs in Drug Design

ADCs have established themselves as a key modality in drug design against existing and novel targets. In addition to potency advantage over naked mAbs, ADCs offer greater protection against biosimilars due to their complexity. We anticipate the ADC landscape to continue its rapid growth in oncology and immunology.

ADC Development and Trends

Given the level of success with ADC drugs to date, as well as the investment flowing into this space, we anticipate ADCs will remain of high interest to investors for the foreseeable future. We believe that this report provides a useful investor reference.

In this report, we include >200 ADC drugs showcasing the breadth of development in this space. We also highlight key upcoming ADC catalysts with their potential stock moves. Lastly, we include a list of recently completed M&A and business development activity in the ADC space.

While in development for the last three decades, the pace of ADC progress has recently accelerated. Since 2018, the number of approved ADCs increased from five to 13. 8 were approved in the last 4 years. We estimate sales of >$7.5B in 2023 growing to >$18B in 2027 from the 13 currently approved ADC drugs.

Key Catalysts to Watch

In addition to the drugs currently on the market, 10 ADCs are approaching pivotal results or regulatory decisions. We have included a key catalyst table highlighting upcoming data readouts. Beyond data readouts, in the last 18 months we saw 62 ADC-related partnerships. We anticipate the next year to be just as active on the business development front.