On May 4, 2023 Adagene Inc. ("Adagene") (Nasdaq: ADAG), a platform-driven, clinical-stage biotechnology company transforming the discovery and development of novel antibody-based therapies reported achievement of a milestone in its ongoing collaboration with Exelixis for development of novel masked antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates leveraging Adagene’s proprietary SAFEbody precision masking technology (Press release, Adagene, MAY 4, 2023, View Source [SID1234630995]).
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Under the terms of a collaboration and licensing agreement established in 2021, the milestone triggers a $3 million payment to Adagene for successful nomination of the lead SAFEbody candidates for the second of its collaboration programs.
"This milestone reflects our focus on delivering high quality antibody candidates to our technology licensing partners, further validating our platform and world-class antibody engineering expertise," said Peter Luo, Ph.D., Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Adagene. "Our collaboration with Exelixis also reflects a strong commitment at Adagene to bringing in non-dilutive funding by leveraging our SAFEbody precision masking and dynamic antibody technologies."
SAFEbody technology is designed to overcome safety and tolerability challenges associated with many antibody therapeutics by using precision masking technology to shield the binding domain of the biologic therapy. This allows for improved tumor-specific targeting of antibodies, while minimizing on-target off-tumor toxicity in healthy tissues, a longstanding challenge with many antibody therapeutics.
Under the terms of the agreement, Adagene received an upfront payment of $11.0 million and Exelixis can nominate two targets for development of SAFEbody candidates during the collaboration. Adagene is eligible for development and commercialization milestones, as well as royalties on net sales of products developed around each of these targets.
In January 2022, Adagene received a $3.0 million milestone payment from Exelixis for the successful nomination of lead SAFEbody candidates for one of the collaboration programs, and an additional $1.1 million upfront payment in June 2022.
Adagene has a network of global technology licensing agreements, including a $2.5 billion collaboration with Sanofi announced in March 2022. In addition to ongoing technology licensing collaborations, Adagene applies its SAFEbody technology to develop candidates for its wholly-owned pipeline of transformative antibody-based therapeutics. The company also has a clinical collaboration with Roche, who is sponsoring and conducting a randomized phase 1b/2 to evaluate the anti-CTLA-4 SAFEbody ADG126 in combination with atezolizumab and bevacizumab in first-line treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.