I. What changes - news to watch this week

Duality Biotherapeutics Eyes Hong Kong IPO to Power ADC Pipeline Forward

Hong Kong, China 🇭🇰 – Duality Biotherapeutics, a biotech focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), has taken a bold step forward by filing for an IPO in Hong Kong (PDF) to raise even more capitals. Founded in 2019, Duality is positioning itself to accelerate the development of its 12 internally discovered ADCs, half already in clinical trials.

Read more about the HK IPO exit strategy of biotech companies here.

BioNTech is one of the Global Partners

With collaborations worth over $4 billion, Duality has secured deals with major players like BioNTech, BeiGene, and Adcendo, placing itself at the forefront of ADC innovation. The funds from the IPO will help the company push its two BioNTech-partnered ADCs, DB-1303 (BNT323) and DB-1311 (BNT324), towards key clinical milestones, with human trials slated for 2026.

DB-1303, a HER2-directed ADC, could be one of Duality’s first major milestones, with potential accelerated approval as early as 2025. While AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu is already dominating the HER2 space, Duality is carving out its own niche by targeting endometrial cancer, as well as exploring activity in ovarian, colorectal, and esophageal cancers. It’s a calculated move, entering highly competitive markets with a specific angle that could set them apart.

II. What never changes - timeless wisdom

🙂‍↔️ How to overcome self-doubt

We often hear our internal voices when we are in the kitchen preparing our meals, washing our dishes, or alone. Some may be positive, others may cast self-doubts, “Will I make it?”, “Will everything in my presentation be alright tomorrow?”, “Will the new studio look exactly like I want?”, “Will the meeting be successful?”. As much as our curious minds are programmed, shutting down this unending stream of self-questioning is difficult. So, how should our conscious minds counteract these unintentional questions? Time.

Nature does not have time. Humans invent time. I don’t think cats and dogs share the sense of time like we do. Pets eat and sleep and repeat the whole thing another day. I rarely see a puppy will plant a tree or save a treat in a jaw. In this sense, time does not really exist in the natural world. In the human world, however, it is heavily interwoven into every second of our lives. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, processes have become standardized, economics of scale has become the best practice, and time and money have become subjects that can no longer be separated. We talked about passive income, work-life balance, hourly rate, and everything that makes a living is time-related. However, there is one thing we do not emphasize enough: however much we want, we cannot speed up or slow down time.

Knowing that the speed and the direction of time are, at least until now, practically irreversible, we should make use of this fact to counter our self-doubts about what is waiting for us in the future. Will I get the job offer tomorrow? Only time will tell. You would not know until you reach the time point when it happens. Will your presentation go well tomorrow? Again, only time will tell. Calming down your curious mind by realizing that we can’t speed up time and reveal what is waiting for us, like turning over stones, we should embrace the bitterness of the waiting in the meantime and the sweetness of future revelation.

III. Book Quotes

Here are some book quotes for you to ponder over the weekend.

Thanks for reading,

— Anthony