Date: 2016-03-16
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: monoclonal antibodies targeting PD-1
Company: Cellectis (France) MabQuest (Switzerland)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D licensing
Action mechanism: monoclonal antibody/immune checkpoint inhibitor
Disease:
Details: * On March 16, 2016, Cellectis and MabQuest announced that they have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement pertaining to the development of a new class of monoclonal antibodies targeting PD-1. The action of these PD-1 antibodies is to promote the recovery of Tcells from exhaustion through a new mechanism of action. This new class of antibodies differs from currently approved anti-PD-1 mAbs in that they do not block the PD-1-PD-L1 interaction. These anti-PD-1 mAbs have potential uses for multiple indications in immunotherapy, including notably treatments for a variety of cancers. Cellectis plans to use this new class of anti-PD-1 antibodies either in combination therapy with its gene-edited UCART product candidates or single-agent or in combination with other already approved immunotherapy drugs.
In vitro studies have shown that the combination of these novel PD-1 mAbs with currently approved anti-PD-1 mAbs enhances the recovery of T-cells from exhaustion. Due to their new mechanism of action, these anti-PD-1 mAbs may be used in combination with other PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, such as nivolumab and pembrolizumab, or other checkpoints inhibitors and immunotherapy approaches for boosting the therapeutic effects of single therapy. In addition, Cellectis intend to combine these PD-1 mAbs with its gene edited UCART product candidates to enhance their activity and increase their half-life.
The agreement includes a collaboration phase funded by Cellectis whereby Cellectis and MabQuest will jointly pursue preclinical research on several candidate antibodies; and a clinical development and commercialization phase of the best selected antibodies which will be led by Cellectis.
Under the agreement, MabQuest has granted an exclusive option to Cellectis. Upon exercise of the option, Cellectis would be granted worldwide exclusive rights over the family of PD-1 antagonist antibodies developed under the collaboration for all fields, and further potential derivatives of these antibodies.
Financial terms:
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