ZoeNCure Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd., an oncology biotechnology company based in New Delhi, today announced a strategic licensing agreement with San Diego-based Styx Biotechnologies, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, ZoeNCure has secured rights to license proprietary antibody technology and candidates to develop and commercialize next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in India.
The collaboration will focus primarily on developing novel dual-payload ADCs specifically designed for hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), a widespread public health burden across India and South Asia with limited effective targeted treatment options.
By integrating licensed antibody targeting with advanced payload chemistries, ZoeNCure aims to engineer therapies that deliver two distinct therapeutic mechanisms simultaneously. This approach is designed to overcome treatment resistance, address tumor heterogeneity, and significantly enhance the therapeutic index compared to single-payload conjugates.
Under the agreement, ZoeNCure will lead and fund early-stage advancement through its specialized domestic framework.
“Securing access to this novel antibody technology marks a pivotal milestone in advancing our domestic oncology pipeline,” said the Leadership Team at ZoeNCure Therapeutics. “Liver cancer presents an urgent unmet medical need in our region. By deploying cutting-edge dual-payload ADC strategies, ZoeNCure is positioning itself at the leading edge of precision medicine to bring highly effective, targeted therapies to patients in India.”
The collaboration establishes a streamlined development framework driven by ZoeNCure’s end-to-end preclinical characterization, translational oncology, CMC scale-up, and regulatory execution capabilities. By unifying Styx’s proprietary biological platform with ZoeNCure’s domestic trial sponsorship and clinical development capabilities, the partnership creates a rapid, integrated pathway to advance dual-payload ADCs from early translational validation through regulatory filing and first-in-human clinical evaluation. Beyond the lead liver cancer program, the licensing agreement enables ZoeNCure to explore additional dual-payload ADC candidates across high-burden solid tumor indications in the region.
