Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. has announced the nomination of the second clinical candidate under its Probody T-cell engaging bispecific (TCB) collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc. The two companies are collaborating on multiple conditionally activated TCB programs, with T-cell engagers offering new possibilities for the treatment of solid tumors.
Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is involved in cancer cell invasion while it acts as a negative regulator of adhesion. EpCAM is overexpressed in several cancer types, such as colorectal, ovarian or gastric cancer, and its expression is associated with a worse prognosis.
Once a rarity, billion-dollar deals are now coming fast and furious. Now three have appeared in only a few days. Gene therapy developer Voyager Therapeutics Inc. and Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. continued a longstanding partnership by agreeing to develop treatments for neurological diseases and for three new programs with rare CNS targets. Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. and Moderna Inc. entered a deal worth a potential $1.24 billion to Cytomx for generating and developing treatments in oncology and non-oncology. In the third deal, Royalty Pharma plc acquired an interest in Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s royalty in Biogen Inc.'s Spinraza (nusinersen) and Novartis AG's pelacarsen for up to $1.125 billion.
Conditionally active antibody specialist Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. has agreed to work with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. to discover and develop new bispecific antibodies with what the partners said is the potential to "widen the therapeutic window and help minimize off-target effects."
Attention has turned to Cytomx Therapeutics Inc.’s CX-2029 candidate after the company held up its program with the CD166-directed antibody-drug conjugate CX-2009, based on phase II data in patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-non-amplified breast cancer.
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).
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. A year ago in January, he said, the South San Francisco-based firm brought aboard Chief Business Officer Nick Galli to “hit the gas pedal a bit more in business development,” which led to the signing with Astellas, of Tokyo. Shares of Cytomx (NASDAQ:CTMX) closed March 24 at $6.53, up $1.60, or 32%.
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.