Great Britain’s life sciences group Abzena has inked a licensing agreement and a chief service and medical render contract with Taiwan’s biopharma group OBI Pharma to facilitate procedure expansion and production using ThioBridge technology.
ThioBridge is antibody drug conjugate (ADC) linker technology of Abzena, will be used to expand OBI’s ADC, OBI-999, and a range of further ADCs as prospective therapy for cancer disease.
The antibody-drug conjugate technology, which associates other proteins and antibodies to medicines, also has the potential to sustain the constancy of the protein and a steady drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR), rendering a more consistent product.
OBI Pharma’s OBI-999 particularly aims cancer cells and producing excess cancer antigen Globo H that is a piece of the Globo sequence that contains a set of cancer-related carbohydrate proteins.
The Globo series comprises Globo H, SSEA4, and SSEA3 that may play role in development of around 14 types of cancers, such as colorectal, gastric, blood, lung, and breast.
In the pre-research analysis, OBI Pharma has discovered advocating outcomes for OBI-999 and plans to stimulate the progress of the product contender and other ADCs in Globo series.
Presently, the group is conducting Phase I IND formulations, with Chemistry Manufacturing Control (CMC) planning and toxicology analysis plan.
As per the provisions in the agreement, OBI Pharma will have a global sole authorization to utilize the ThioBridge technology to explore, expand and market the ADCs aiming the Globo series.
Reciprocally, Abzena will obtain a little primary advance amount from OBI Pharma and subject to the success of the development, it has the prospective to get around EURO 128 million. This prospective payment might be paid after attainment of certain expansion, administrative and market milestones. It will also get royalties on the sales of any permitted ADC yield which uses ThioBridge technology.
Amy Huang, general manager of OBI Pharma said that the alliance augments our antibody drug conjugate (ADC) expansion plan and we look forward to expanding efficient cancer therapies for cancers caused by Globo series proteins.
Under the chief service and medical render contract, Abzena will provide OBI Pharma with further development in the production process and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production of OBI-999 and advance ADCs.
Dr. John Burt, CEO of Abzena stated that this recent contract motivated from a prosperous estimation program of the ThioBridge technology by Abzena for OBI Pharma.
He added that total antibody drug conjugate (ADC) development program for OBI Pharma absorbs on Abzena’s chemical research and production capacities around the Cambridge (United Kingdom) along with Bristol (Pennsylvania) plants, and rechecks the worth of Abzena’s incorporated contribution.
He further said that the development of their contribution to comprise Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for antibody drug conjugate (ADC) has been altered by their new investments and this agreement is an excellent instance of their capability to persist to sustain their associates with manufacturing capabilities, process development, and wider chemistry research services.