DUBLIN – Merus NV is banking $40 million up front, plus an equity investment of $20 million, under a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co.’s Loxo Oncology arm to develop up to three CD3-directed bispecific T-cell engager antibodies. Each program also has up to $540 million attached in development and commercialization milestones, taking the total potential value of the deal to $1.68 billion. Merus would also receive tiered royalties on any product sales, ranging, in percentage terms, from mid-single-digits to low-double-digits.
Preclinical startup Tavotek Biotherapeutics Ltd., with operations in Pennsylvania and Suzhou, China, boasts two technology platforms for discovering and developing molecular-targeted biologics for cancers and autoimmune diseases and is working to push its candidates, including a bispecific antibody, to the clinic next year.
Preclinical startup Tavotek Biotherapeutics Ltd., with operations in Pennsylvania and Suzhou, China, boasts two technology platforms for discovering and developing molecular-targeted biologics for cancers and autoimmune diseases and is working to push its candidates, including a bispecific antibody, to the clinic next year.
DUBLIN – Affimed NV has found another taker for its tetravalent bispecific antibody-based innate cell engager (ICE) platform. Roivant Sciences GmbH is putting down $40 million in cash, plus another $20 million of its own stock, as part of a multiprogram alliance involving AFM-32 plus additional molecules directed at targets not currently addressed by Affimed’s pipeline. Some $2 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones are also attached to the deal.
The always-busy American Society of Hematology meeting in December promises to include some especially intriguing datasets from the bispecific antibody space, as multiple players are likely to unveil findings related to their CD20xCD3 prospects.
LONDON – Privately held U.K. biotech F-star Therapeutics Ltd. is gaining a Nasdaq listing via a reverse merger with Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc., with F-star’s shareholders due to own 61% of the new entity, to be named F-star Therapeutics Inc.
HONG KONG – Shanghai-based I-Mab Biopharma Co. Ltd. expects to begin clinical trials for the world’s first and only claudin18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific program in a year.
The first bispecific antibody to win regulatory approval, Removab (catumaxomab) was voluntarily withdrawn due to commercial reasons. Now Chinese biotech Lintonpharm Co. Ltd., of Guangzhou, said it plans to move catumaxomab to a global phase III trial following an IND approval from China’s NMPA, investigating the trifunctional bispecific antibody in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis, a form of advanced gastric cancer.
The first bispecific antibody to win regulatory approval, Removab (catumaxomab) was voluntarily withdrawn due to commercial reasons. Now Chinese biotech Lintonpharm Co. Ltd., of Guangzhou, said it plans to move catumaxomab to a global phase III trial following an IND approval from China’s NMPA, investigating the trifunctional bispecific antibody in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis, a form of advanced gastric cancer.
HONG KONG – Shanghai-based I-Mab Biopharma Co. Ltd. expects to begin clinical trials for the world’s first and only claudin18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific program in a year. "We expect the trial to start in U.S. in the [middle of] next year. We will then expand the trial to China afterwards as planned," Joan Shen, CEO of I-Mab, told BioWorld.
