Date: 2017-03-23
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Euchloe Bio (Singapore)
Acquiring company: Tessa Therapeutics (Singapore)
Amount: undisclosed
Terms: * On March 23, 2017, Tessa Therapeutics, an immunotherapy company dedicated to the treatment of cancer, announced the full acquisition of Euchloe Bio, a biotechnology company specializing in the development and commercialization of antibodies to treat cancer. Euchloe’s portfolio includes a number of highly potent checkpoint receptor antagonists and immune system agonists.
Details: Tessa Therapeutics is a fully-integrated biotech company, its scientific vision is to redirect the body’s potent anti-viral immune response to recognize and kill cancer cells. Tessa’s core virus specific T cell (VST) platform has shown compelling results in the treatment of solid tumors, and the company is building a portfolio of therapies addressing a wide range of tumors by combining the qualities of its T cell platform with complementary technologies. The company has exclusive licenses to multiple technologies developed at Baylor College of Medicine. The National Cancer Centre Singapore is a strategic shareholder of Tessa and has granted exclusive rights to immuno-oncology technologies to Tessa. The acquisition of Euchloe Bio strengthens Tessa’s position as a fully-integrated cancer immunotherapy company. Since Euchloe Bio’s spin-out from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), the company has advanced several antibody drug candidates for clinical trials including its suite of checkpoint inhibitors (PD1, PDL1, CTLA4, Tim3 and Lag3 antibodies). Euchloe has also developed a number of these projects in combination with Tessa’s Virus Specific T cell (VST) platform technology. Euchloe’s technologies show strong potential to increase the effectiveness of Tessa’s VST therapies and expand Tessa’s pipeline to a broader range of cancers. Euchloe is collaborating with Tessa on the development of next-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies that are expected to show high specificity and efficacy, for a superior safety profile. The combination of the technologies and research & development capabilities of the two companies is expected to realize strong synergies. Euchloe’s focus will remain on the development and commercialization of antibodies as stand-alone and combination therapies, while research efforts will continue to be led by its founder, Dr Cheng-I Wang.
Related: Cancer - Oncology
