BioWorld Today Correspondent
ThromboGenics NV and BioInvent International AB will share an up-front payment of €50 million (US$77.5 million), plus up to €450 million more in milestones, by partnering their jointly developed first-in-class antiangiogenesis monoclonal antibody TB-403 with F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.
The two companies also would receive double-digit royalties on eventual product sales.
Leuven, Belgium-based ThromboGenics, which originally licensed the program from the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB), also of Leuven, will receive a 60 percent share of all proceeds accruing from the deal. Lund, Sweden-based antibody developer BioInvent will receive the remaining 40 percent.
The molecule, which has completed a Phase I trial in healthy volunteers, targets placenta growth factor (PIGF). Also known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-related protein, PIGF regulates the onset of angiogenesis - the angiogenic switch - in diseased but not in healthy states. Its role as a cancer target was elucidated by Peter Carmeliet at VIB during a series of studies dating back to the beginning of this decade.
Most recently, Carmeliet and colleagues at VIB, ThromboGenics and research centers in the Netherlands and Italy published data from mouse studies in the Nov. 2, 2007, issue of Cell, which indicated that a different anti-PIGF antibody, alphaPIGF, inhibited growth and metastasis of various tumors, including those resistant to VEGF receptor inhibitors.
ThromboGenics CEO and chairman Désiré Collen, a co-author on that paper, said during a conference call Wednesday the study demonstrated that the antibody had "a clear additive, if not synergistic, effect" when administered in combination with Avastin, the anti-VEGF antibody marketed by South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. and its majority shareholder Basel, Switzerland-based Roche.
Moreover, TB-403 could offer additional benefits. "Compared to Avastin, we believe there might be less side effects," he said. If developed successfully, TB-403 would "almost certainly" be positioned as a combination therapy - "probably" with chemotherapy and "possibly" with other antiangiogenic agents, Collen said.
"You can reduce the dose of the anti-VEGF compound quite significantly, so that much of the side effects might disappear," he added.
The deal with Roche covers multiple indications in oncology and, potentially, age-related macular degeneration. "We have primarily focused on four indications, but we're not at liberty at this point to talk about what they are," said Stuart Laermer, chief business officer at ThromboGenics.
Roche has obtained a worldwide exclusive license to TB-403 and follow-up compounds in all indications. ThromboGenics and BioInvent have retained a co-promotion option covering the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Nordic and Baltic regions.
The two companies decided to obtain a partner at this point in the development program to explore its potential to the full. "In this case, it's very important that they can run several Phase II trials in parallel," BioInvent CEO Svein Mathieson told BioWorld Today. "Roche has put forward a very aggressive development plan," he said.
But it had to beat out several other contenders to secure the deal. "Virtually, all the major big pharma companies showed some interest in TB-403," Laermer said.
Roche will fund all future research and development work involving TB-403, including an upcoming trial in Denmark, which BioInvent and ThromboGenics will manage.
"We will be completing a pending Phase Ib trial in end-stage cancer patients," Laermer said.
Shares in ThromboGenics (Brussels:THR) peaked at €9.03 on the Euronext Exchange before closing Wednesday at €8.58, up 8.6 percent, and BioInvent's stock (Stockholm:BINV) reached SEK29.80 during trading before closing at SEK27.70, up 6.5 percent.