Date: 2013-10-15
Type of information: Collaboration agreement
Compound: antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programmes in preclinical development
Company: Medimmune (USA - global biologics arm of AstraZeneca (UK) ADC Therapeutics (Switzerland)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: collaboration
Action mechanism: Spirogen’s proprietary pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) technology attaches highly potent cytotoxic agents, or ‘warheads’ to specific cancer-targeting antibodies using biodegradable ‘linkers’. This targeting optimises the delivery of the cancer drug to the tumour cells only and provides the greatest degree of tumour killing while minimising the toxicity to the patient.
Disease:
Details: * On October 15, 2013, MedImmune has entered into a collaboration agreement with ADC Therapeutics to jointly develop two of ADC Therapeutics’ antibody-drug conjugate programmes in preclinical development. Antibody-drug conjugates are a clinically-validated cancer drug technology that offers both high potency and selective targeting of cancer cells. MedImmune is developing a comprehensive portfolio with an emphasis on two key areas in oncology development: antibody-drug conjugates and immune-mediated cancer therapy, which aims to harness the power of the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer.
Financial terms: MedImmune will also pay $20 million for an equity investment in ADC Therapeutics, which will be matched by Auven Therapeutics, the majority shareholder in both ADC Therapeutics and Spirogen. The collaboration agreement will include an upfront payment with predetermined development milestones for two programmes from a defined list and a cost- and profit-sharing arrangement with MedImmune representing the majority share. ADC Therapeutics will also have the option to co-promote one of the products in the US.
Latest news: * On May 18, 2014, ADC Therapeutics announced that it has selected its first IND candidate under its joint development agreement with Medimmune. This follows the October 2013 announcement in which MedImmune entered into a collaboration agreement with ADC Therapeutics to jointly develop two of ADCT’s antibody-drug conjugate programs in preclinical development. ADCT-401 targets Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) a cell-surface antigen specifically expressed by prostate cancer cells. ADCT-401 comprises an anti-PSMA monoclonal antibody coupled with a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) warhead using a proprietary linker licensed from London-based Spirogen, a wholly owned subsidiary of MedImmune. Initial clinical studies will focus on hormone-refractory prostate cancer and an IND filing is anticipated in 2015. The PSMA-specific J591 antibody in ADCT-401 was developed by Dr. Neil H. Bander, the Bernard & Josephine Chaus Professor of Urologic Oncology and Director of Urological Oncology Research at the Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York. Dr. Bander is also Chairman of ADCT’s Scientific Advisory Board. PSMA is a cell-surface antigen expressed by virtually all prostate cancer cells, including metastases, and also in the blood vessels that feed many other tumor types, but is rarely expressed in normal cells. This will be ADCT’s second ADC program into the clinic from its pipeline of eleven programs with an IND filing expected in the first of these programs by the end of this year. The pre-clinical development of ADCT-401 is being managed by a team of scientists based in laboratories at the Queen Mary Bioenterprises Innovation Centre, London which, being co-located with Spirogen, enables close co-operation between the two groups.
