Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are hot topics for investors and big pharma alike. From “smart ADCs” to immunology applications, we explore the most promising emerging innovations in the space.
ADCs—biologics consisting of an antibody carrier connected to a toxic payload drug—are drawing huge interest across the industry. Pfizer, Gilead, and AbbVie led a megadeal frenzy as they acquired the U.S. ADC developers Seagen for $43 billion, Immunomedics for $21 billion, and ImmunoGen for $10 billion, respectively. So far in 2026, Johnson & Johnson has paid $1 billion for the U.S. firm Firefly Bio and Gilead has snapped up Germany’s Tubulis for $3.15 billion upfront.
Part of the hype stems from the potential of the technology: while traditional chemotherapy hits both healthy and cancer cells, leading to unpleasant side effects, ADCs deliver a chemotherapy payload to cancer cells via a selective antibody carrier, transporting the payload inside cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
The concept of targeted drug delivery arose in the early 20th century, with the first ADC, gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), given accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Although safety concerns have plagued some ADCs, the technology continued to develop, as new drugs entered the market.
Today, increasing adoption and investments in precision cancer therapies are powering more than nine percent annual growth in the global ADC market, which could grow to $36 billion by 2034 from $16 billion in 2025.
As huge funding rounds propel the development of established ADC players, there are also many earlier-stage ideas to jump on. Check out five seed-stage ADC developers worth watching this year.
1. DISCO Pharmaceuticals
Founded: 2022 | Headquarters: Cologne, Germany, and Zürich, Switzerland
DISCO Pharmaceuticals was spun out of ETH Zürich and emerged from stealth in early 2024. The mission: discover new molecules that antibodies can target on the surface of cancer cells.
Fewer than 30 surface molecules are currently targeted by approved antibodies. Therefore, unlocking the vast range of other potential targets, the “surfaceome,” could lead to more effective and selective cancer therapies.
DISCO uses proteomics to map proteins on the surface of cancer cells that are out of reach of traditional genomics and transcriptomics. The team focuses on protein communities that could be targeted by multi-specific antibodies.
The company completed the first full surfaceome map of small-cell lung cancer within months, and is now applying the platform to colorectal cancer. It is also developing its own preclinical-stage ADC candidates.
DISCO raised €20 million ($23 million) in an initial seed round in 2024 and closed the round at €36 million ($41 million) in 2025. The company has the backing of investors like European venture capital (VC) Sofinnova Partners, Belgium-based Ackermans & van Haaren, German NRW.BANK, and corporate VCs AbbVie Ventures and M Ventures.
This year, the startup sealed a licensing deal worth up to $618 million with Amgen to develop cancer treatments based on a target mapped via DISCO’s technology.
DISCO’s founding team came from ETH Zürich, the University of Cologne, and Stanford University. One of them, COO Johannes Heuckmann, PhD, previously co-founded PearlRiver Bio, which was absorbed by Centessa Pharmaceuticals (now part of Eli Lilly) in 2021.
2. Fortitude Biomedicines
Founded: 2025 | Headquarters: Waltham, Massachusetts
Fortitude Biomedicines was launched to tackle the rise of cancer resistance to ADCs, which led to a growing need for new payloads.
The firm’s answer is “degrader-antibody conjugates” (DACs). In contrast to traditional ADCs, a DAC warhead is a targeted protein degrader, leading to a very selective therapy.
When they bind to a cancer cell, Fortitude’s drugs are designed to engineer the cell’s own protein-disposal machinery to destroy specific proteins causing the disease.
Its lead candidate, FORT-202, is a bispecific antibody in late-stage preclinical development for the treatment of the autoimmune disease axial spondyloarthritis.
Fortitude’s less advanced cancer program, FORT-101, is designed to selectively degrade proteins that cancer cells rely on to survive.
The startup raised a $13 million seed round this year co-led by Beijing-based K2 Bio Partners, Shanghai Healthcare Angel Capital, and Shanghai-based Elikon Venture. The team is using the proceeds to power the development of its pipeline.
Fortitude Biomedicines was founded by a team including CEO Jesse Chen, PhD, a serial entrepreneur who also co-founded and advises protein degradation companies TRIANA Biomedicines and Avilar Therapeutics. TRIANA closed a $120 million Series B round in December 2025.
Fortitude’s technology is based on research by co-founder Jin Wang, PhD, and his laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
3. LyncBio Therapeutics
Founded: 2023 | Headquarters: Shanghai, China
Our Asia-Pacific entry, LyncBio Therapeutics, is developing two parallel ADC platforms called Zent-iDC™ and Gemini-TDC™ to tackle autoimmune diseases and cancers, respectively.
The startup is developing ADCs with a focus on speed, optimal drug characteristics, and selectivity for disease targets while sparing healthy cells, for example, by using bispecific antibodies in the case of oncology.
LyncBio’s lead candidate, LYNC-101, is in Phase I trials in Australia for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease—one of the first to reach clinical trials for this particular disease.
The company is also developing preclinical-stage candidates for conditions like triple-negative breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
LyncBio initially closed a seed round led by the Shanghai-based investor Apricot Capital, followed by a pre-A co-led by Apricot and fellow Shanghai investor Panlin Capital, in December 2025. The company landed an additional near-RMB 100 million ($15 million) pre-A+ round in June this year, led by compatriot firm BioTrack Capital, to propel the development of its pipeline programs.
LyncBio’s global team includes CEO Cexiong Fu, PhD, and CTO Jiajie Feng, PhD. Among other roles, Fu previously co-founded and was CTO of ADC player Mabsoft Therapeutics, and Feng served in senior roles at WuXi AppTec.
4. Synthetic Design Lab
Founded: 2022 | Headquarters: San Carlos, California
Synthetic Design Lab (SDL) aims to create ADCs that dynamically adjust their behavior based on what they encounter in the body instead of performing the simple binding function of traditional protein drugs.
For example, the startup hunts for combinations of proteins on the surface of cancer cells that can lead to more selective, multi-specific ADCs. It also programs drugs to account for multiple factors when binding to targets, as if they were transistors in a computer.
Based on preclinical results this year, SDL’s candidate drug for multiple myeloma was more potent and better at being absorbed into cancer cells than belantamab (Blenrep).
SDL emerged from stealth mode in 2025 with a $20 million seed round backed by investors like California-based Playground Global and Godfrey Capital. At the time, the company signaled plans to enter into clinical trials this year.
Co-founder and CEO Daniel Chen, MD, PhD, previously held senior roles at Genentech for over a decade, where he led the clinical development of the checkpoint inhibitor drug atezolizumab (Tecentriq). Co-founder and CSO Ramesh Baliga, PhD, was vice president of biotherapeutics at Exelixis.
5. Tacalyx
Founded: 2019 | Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Tacalyx originated as a spin-out of the Potsdam-based Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. It aims to treat tumors by targeting sugar molecules called tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) on the surface of cancer cells.
TACAs are often found in larger quantities on tumor cells than on healthy cells and can help tumors grow. Advantages over other cancer targets include the development of potential pan-cancer treatments that circumvent resistance to current drugs. However, TACAs have been stubbornly hard to target with antibodies—an obstacle that Tacalyx plans to overcome.
Tacalyx’s lead ADC, TCX-201, is in preclinical development for the treatment of solid tumors like gastrointestinal malignancies. The team plans to apply for clinical trial approval in 2027.
Tacalyx raised a €7 million ($8 million) seed round in 2019, co-led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and European VC Kurma Partners, extending it to more than €14 million ($16 million) in 2024.
The company followed up in April this year with another €11 million ($12.5 million) in the first closing of a seed extension round from its existing investors. The team plans to use the proceeds to bankroll its pipeline programs.
Tacalyx’s CEO, Jean Engela, held senior roles at Boehringer Ingelheim and was previously CEO of the Swiss ADC player NBE Therapeutics, which was acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim for €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2020.
Among the founding team, CSO Peter Sondermann, PhD, was CSO and CEO of SuppreMol, which was acquired by Baxter International’s bioscience business (now part of Takeda) in 2015.
Jonathan Smith, PhD, is a freelance science journalist based in the U.K. and Spain. He previously worked in Berlin as a reporter and news editor at Labiotech, a website covering the biotech industry. Prior to this, he completed a PhD in behavioral neurobiology at the University of Leicester and freelanced for the U.K. organizations Research Media and the Society of Experimental Biology. He has also written for medwireNews, Biopharma Reporter, and Outsourcing Pharma.
