Agreements

Date: 0000-00-00

Type of information: Joint-venture agreement

Compound: bisantrene combined with TargImmune's targeted cancer therapy technology

Company: Race Oncology (Australia) TargImmune Therapeutics (Switzerland) Race Immunotherapeutics

Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology

Type agreement: joint-venture

Action mechanism:

anthracycline/intercalating agent/immunotherapy product. Bisantrene intercalates with and disrupts the configuration of DNA, resulting in DNA single-strand breaks, DNA-protein crosslinking, and inhibition of DNA replication. This agent is similar to doxorubicin in activity, but unlike doxorubicin, does not exhibit cardiotoxicity.
The TargImmune technology platform was in-licensed from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Proprietary non-viral vectors are used to target receptors that are overexpressed on cancer cells, such as those found in breast cancer and several other important cancers. Once at the target cell, the vector delivers an immune-modulating agent (poly-IC or pIC) into the cell, which then triggers apoptosis and an immune response against the cancer. The overall targeting technology is known as CTPIC ('Cancer Targeted delivery of pIC').
TargImmune believes that therapeutic synergies can be achieved by combining CTPIC with a broad-spectrum chemotherapy. Because of its greatly reduced cardiotoxicity and mode of action, bisantrene represents the ideal chemotherapy to combine with the TargImmune CTPIC platform. In turn, the anti-cancer effects of bisantrene could be greatly enhanced by combination with CTPIC.

Disease:

Details:

• On July 10, 2017, Race Oncology announced that it has executed a Letter of Intent with TargImmune Therapeutics AG to enter into a joint venture between the two companies. The joint venture, to be called Race Immunotherapeutics, will focus on developing new and improved cancer therapies based on combining bisantrene with TargImmune's targeted cancer therapy technology.
The initial focus of the Joint Venture will be to develop combinations of bisantrene with CTPIC aimed at EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor), an important target in breast and other cancers. This opens up therapeutic opportunities in breast cancer, as well as non-small-cell lung (NSCL) cancer and head & neck cancers.
Beyond EGFR, the joint venture will explore combinations of bisantrene with CTPIC targeted at other cancer targets, including PSMA (a prostate cancer marker).
TargImmune is led by Dr Esteban Pombo-Villar, who has recently been appointed as CEO and whose background includes more than 20 years at Novartis, notably as Head of Alliance Management at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR).

Financial terms:

The Race Immunotherapeutics (RITX ) joint venture will be a 50:50 partnership between Race and TargImmune, and all new intellectual property created by RITX will be equally co-owned by the parties through their ownership of the joint venture. RITX will be independently funded and operations of the joint venture will commence once funding is in place and formal agreements executed. Final terms of the joint venture agreement are subject to approval of both companies' boards. All core development work will be conducted by TargImmune scientists in Basel, under the guidance of a steering committee that includes Race scientific staff. Race will provide scientific support and Bisantrene drug product, but no direct funding to the Joint Venture.

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