Date: 2016-02-03
Type of information: Collaboration agreement
Compound: Fleximer® antibody drug conjugate (ADC) platform, XMT-1522
Company: Mersana Therapeutics (USA - MA) Takeda Pharmaceutical (Japan)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: collaboration R&D licensing
Action mechanism: antibody drug conjugate (ADC) XMT-1522 is an investigational, Fleximer-based ADC therapy that targets HER2-expressing tumors, including breast, gastric and non-small cell lung cancers. Preclinical data suggest that XMT-1522 may have anti-tumor activity in patients with HER2 low-expressing cancers as well as in patients with HER2 highexpressing cancers that do not respond to currently available HER2-targeting therapies.
Disease:
Details: * On October 27, 2014, Mersana Therapeutics, announced that Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical, has exercised an option to license commercial rights for its first novel Fleximer® antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developed under their collaboration announced earlier this year. Over the past seven months, Mersana and Takeda have been conducting pre-clinical, proof-of-concept studies for several Fleximer-ADCs against an undisclosed oncology target under a research license to Mersana’s Fleximer-ADC technology. With the exercise of the commercial license, Mersana will receive a license fee and is eligible for development and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on net sales.
Under the April 2014 agreement, Takeda provided an upfront payment to Mersana for the right to utilize Fleximer technology to develop novel ADC candidates for indications in oncology.
Financial terms: Takeda signed agreements with Mersana through its wholly owned subsidiary, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., under which, Mersana will receive an upfront payment of $40 million and an additional payment of $20 million upon clearance of the IND for XMT-1522 by the FDA. Subject to the success of the XMT-1522 and ADC programs, Mersana is eligible to receive milestone payments of more than $750 million combined, as well as royalties. Takeda will also invest up to $20 million in equity in future rounds of Mersana financing.
Latest news: * On February 3, 2016, Mersana Therapeutics and Takeda Pharmaceutical announced that they have entered a new strategic partnership granting Takeda rights to Mersana’s lead product candidate, XMT-1522, outside the United States and Canada. Mersana anticipates filing an Investigational New Drug application (IND) for XMT-1522 with the FDA in mid-2016. Takeda and Mersana will co-develop XMT-1522, and Mersana will lead execution of the Phase 1 trial. Mersana will retain full commercial rights in the United States and Canada while Takeda will have rights in rest of world. Beyond development and commercialization of XMT-1522, the expanded partnership also grants Takeda access to additional targets within Mersana’s Fleximer-based ADC platform, with Mersana retaining the right to select one program at the end of Phase 1 for co-development and co-commercialization in the United States. Takeda and Mersana will also work together, leveraging Takeda’s proprietary small molecule libraries, to identify and develop novel payloads that both parties will be able to use in new ADC therapies. The deal also expands an existing collaboration between the companies to provide Takeda with additional access to Mersana’s Fleximer® antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform and grants Mersana an option at the end of Phase 1 to co-develop and co-commercialize one of these programs in the United States. In addition, the companies will co-develop new payloads for use with ADCs.
