Genequantum Healthcare Co. Ltd. will work with Aimedbio Inc. to co-develop an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to treat brain and other cancers, working toward an IND filing in 2023.
Less than a year after winning approval in China for the first domestically developed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Remegen Co. Ltd. raised ¥2.6 billion (US$410 million) and picked up a listing on the Shanghai STAR market to support further work on its monoclonal antibodies and ADCs.
Less than a year after winning approval in China for the first domestically developed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Remegen Co. Ltd. raised ¥2.6 billion (US$410 million) and picked up a listing on the Shanghai STAR market to support further work on its monoclonal antibodies and ADCs.
Though conceptually understood for decades, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) haven’t begun to come into their own until recently, but oncology drug developers continue to wrestle with challenges, large among them the problem of antigen selection. Lately, companies including names such as Adagene Inc., Bioatla Inc. and Cytomx Therapeutics Inc., have taken particular interest in exploiting features of the cancer growth itself to add more oomph, with focus on special features of the tumor microenvironment (TME).
Immunogen Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co., having already seen a collaboration collapse in 2018, will try it again. Immunogen granted the exclusive rights to research, develop and commercialize antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that are directed toward targets Lilly will select. Waltham, Mass.-based Immunogen will receive $13 million up front from Lilly and is eligible to receive another $32.5 million in exercise fees if Lilly licenses all the targets. Down the road, Immunogen could receive as much as $1.7 billion in exercise fees and milestones payments.
LONDON – Another month, another deal for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Synaffix BV, which has sealed a $586 million, three-target agreement with Macrogenics Inc. No details of the targets or the indications were disclosed, but Synaffix CEO Peter van de Sande said this is “an important milestone” because it will be the first time the company’s linkers and payloads have been attached to a bispecific antibody.
Mersana Therapeutics Inc. has signed a potential billion-dollar agreement with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech Inc. to research and develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for three cancer targets. Janssen will pay $40 million up front as well as more than $1 billion in potential milestone payments in a big day for ADCs, which saw Mersana’s other development partner, Synaffix BV, announce a tie-up with Macrogenics, Inc. in a deal worth up to $586 million.
LONDON - Synaffix BV’s third-generation linker and payloads have attracted therapeutic antibody veteran Genmab A/S in a potential S415 million licensing deal.
Obi Pharma Inc. has acquired global rights to BSI-04702, an anti-trophoblast antigen 2 (Trop2) humanized monoclonal antibody (MAb), from Biosion Inc. Obi is granted exclusive rights for further preclinical and clinical development, registration and commercialization of the candidate as an antibody-drug conjugate and other derivative products.
Mythic Therapeutics Inc. officially launched with an oversubscribed series B round that garnered $103 million to design smarter, safer antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) by way of a technology originated by the company and dubbed Fatecontrol. Co-founder and CEO Alex Nichols said that, after about 40 years’ worth of development – and despite fairly recent wins – ADCs have been hampered by “toxicity and poor therapeutic index [that] have stopped them from reaching what we would consider to be their full potential.”
