The U.S. FDA cleared teclistamab from Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. as the first bispecific antibody for treating patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM), joining other BCMA-targeted drugs, including an antibody-drug conjugate and CAR T therapies.
Tiziana Life Sciences Inc.’s intranasal, fully human anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody will need testing in 10 or 20 more patients to confirm the signal in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), but key opinion leaders on a conference call March 14 sounded optimistic as they checked out the prospect’s early efficacy.
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.
LONDON – Lava Therapeutics BV has raised $83 million in a series C round, enabling it to begin clinical trials of its bispecific gamma-delta T-cell engager technology, in both a hematologic and a solid tumor indication in 2021.
Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. CEO Sean McCarthy told BioWorld that the longish hiatus between deals broken by the tie-up with Astellas Pharma Inc. was “very deliberate. Over that period of time, we were generating our first clinical data to get experience with how the technology works in cancer patients with our first two lead programs,” both of which have reached the phase II stage.
