On October 14, 2018 Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc. (YmAbs) reported a collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) through a worldwide exclusive license to commercialize two clinical stage fully humanized antibody programs, and a research collaboration agreement, to further develop protein multimerization platform, MULTI-TAG (Press release, Y-mAbs Therapeutics, OCT 14, 2015, View Source,-inc.-joins-forces-with-cancer-center-to-break-new-ground-on-immunotherapy/ [SID1234529204]).
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YmAbs is a new biotechnology company focused on novel immunotherapies for cancer. The license from MSK includes anti GD2 and anti B7-H3 antibody programs in clinical development, as well as non-exclusive access to platform technologies to create next-generation humanized, affinity matured bispecific antibodies, the protein multimerization platform, MULTI-TAG.
"Under this license, YmAbs brings together renowned scientists from MSK, exceptional drug development resources and a proven expert management team to launch and quickly scale an enterprise that will deliver cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy," said Thomas Gad, YmAbs’Founder, President, and Head of Business Development and Strategy. "This is a completely unique opportunity that holds the potential to truly save lives while transforming how we treat cancer."
YmAbs’ Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Claus Møller, said, "We are excited about the impressive clinical data these assets have produced so far by treating more than 1,000 neuroblastoma patients at MSK. We look forward to continue expanding the use of these programs in a number of new oncology indications in both pediatric and adult patients."
Nai-Kong V. Cheung, MD, PhD, who is Head of MSK’s Neuroblastoma Program, said, "Based on the significant anti-tumor activity seen with the anti GD2 and anti B7-H3 antibody programs, we are pursuing an aggressive and comprehensive clinical development plan to accelerate satisfyingregulatory requirements, and make these therapies available to cancer patients in the shortest period of time possible."
MSK expects that this collaboration will ensure the commercial development of two large research programs which have evolved at the cancer center in a very unique way. The programs build uponbasic science discoveries made in Dr. Cheung’s MSK laboratory, subsequently supported through philanthropic efforts from many parent-driven initiatives, including substantial awards from theBand of Parents, a specialized non-profit organization dedicated to funding research and new therapies to treat neuroblastoma. These gifts enabled Dr. Cheung to rapidly bring improved antibody drugs into clinical trials to treat children with very few options. Through MSK’s partnership with YmAbs, these promising immunotherapies can now be developed, sustained, and made available to patients worldwide.
Marc Winthrop, Chairman of the Board of Band of Parents stated, "This exciting new partnership promises to accelerate the critical work Band of Parents has funded at MSK. Right now, only a fraction of the children afflicted with this devastating disease have access to potentially life saving treatments; this partnership will change that. We are grateful to Dr. Cheung for his continued commitment to treating neuroblastoma and to all those who have supported our organization since its inception in 2007. It is their contributions that have made this important partnership possible and will allow us to continue on our mission of funding doctors and programs committed to finding a cure for this potentially fatal pediatric cancer."
YmAbs’ initial start-up management team consists of:
Thomas Gad, Founder, President and Head of Business Development and Strategy, business entrepreneur, and father of a neuroblastoma survivor
Dr. Claus Møller, MD, PhD, CEO of YmAbs, former Chief Operating Officer, and co-founder of Genmab
Bo Kruse, CFO of YmAbs, and former Chief Financial Officer of Genmab
Torben Lund-Hansen, PhD, SVP, Head of Technical Operations, former SVP, Head of Manufacturing at Genmab