New deal enables companies to combine their proprietary technologies to generate novel Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC) product candidates and grow their drug pipelines
ImmunoGen Inc, a leader in the expanding field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer, and Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT), a clinical stage oncology company with a pipeline of immuno-oncology and ADC-based therapies, announce a multi-year collaboration to research, develop and commercialize novel, first-in-class ADCs utilizing ImmunoGen’s proprietary toxins, and directed to novel targets identified via OBT’s proprietary OGAP® discovery platform. The companies will support these R&D efforts through joint funding and by combining their proprietary technologies to develop several assets for each company.
“I am extremely enthusiastic about our new partnership with ImmunoGen, a world leader in the development of ADCs,” said Christian Rohlff, PhD, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oxford BioTherapeutics. “Their expertise, in combination with the unique targets from our OGAP® database, provides huge potential to strengthen our respective drug pipelines with novel and highly differentiated ADCs for cancer patients in need of novel therapeutic options.”
During the initial phases of the collaboration, the companies will jointly select from a number of OBT assets which are at various preclinical stages. Following this, the companies will select a number of additional early-stage targets to add to the partnership.
As part of the agreement, OBT will receive an upfront payment from ImmunoGen, reflecting OBT’s preclinical programs to be included in the partnership. ImmunoGen may select a pre-specified number of additional targets, with each party able to select development programs for their respective company to internally develop further, after antibodies generated by OBT have been coupled with ImmunoGen’s optimized proprietary toxins and tested by OBT for pre-clinical efficacy and safety.
Each company is eligible to receive milestone payments based on the achievement of pre-specified development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties as a percentage of worldwide commercial sales. Once a company has chosen a given program, it will be solely responsible for all R&D costs associated with the specific program.
“We are very excited to have signed this agreement with OBT and believe that access to the unique high-quality targets from the OGAP database will allow us to quickly identify novel antibody-based targets for cancer,” said Eric Westin, MD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Translational Sciences at ImmunoGen [or Stacy Coen, ImmunoGen’s Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer?]. “We are impressed with the capabilities of OBT’s technology and look forward to applying our ADC discovery and clinical development expertise for the development of new cancer treatments addressing unmet patient needs.”
OBT has already gained clinical experience with ImmunoGen’s ADC platform through its lead program OBT076, an ADC currently in clinical trials as a monotherapy as well as in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, in patients with advanced or refractory solid tumors, including gastric, bladder, ovarian and lung cancer. OBT076 utilizes ImmunoGen’s DM4 toxin.