On January 20, 2022 Champions Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSBR), a leading global technology-enabled biotech that is transforming drug discovery through innovative AI-driven pharmaco-pheno-multiomic integration, reported a therapeutic co-development partnership with Fannin Innovation Studio (Press release, Champions Oncology, JAN 20, 2022, View Source [SID1234605618]). The partnership will combine novel therapeutic targets identified within Champions’ Lumin platform with Fannin’s Therapeutic Raptamer platform to develop next generation Raptamer Drug Conjugates (RDC’s). RDCs engage tumor-specific therapeutic targets at a cell’s surface to deliver potent toxic payloads to the tumor, without affecting normal cells. The planned partnership will initiate with a single program focused on a previously unexplored target present in tumor indications such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), head and neck cancer, and other solid tumors. The partnership will also leverage the unique experimental platforms available at Champions to ensure rapid and efficient development towards clinical evaluation. Under the terms of this agreement, Champions and Fannin will share equal ownership of the developed therapeutic and establish a joint venture after specific development milestones are met.
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Ronnie Morris, MD, President and CEO of Champions Oncology, said "We’re excited to announce another partnership in drug discovery and development. Our experimental and digital research platforms continue to expand our understanding of tumor cell biology. With our AI-driven analytics, and deeply characterized dataset, we can completely reconstruct a tumor at the molecular level and identify differences between a tumor cell and normal cell. Over the past year, we have identified a considerable number of therapeutic targets that were previously overlooked using conventional methods, and we continue to scale our efforts to reveal others. The specific target being leveraged in this partnership has a profile that makes it uniquely interesting for an RDC-based therapeutic. Fannin’s Raptamer Platform is a compelling approach to therapeutic discovery, and we believe this partnership is the right approach for this target. We are eager to see this program develop with our combined expertise."
Atul Varadhachary, MD, PhD, Managing Partner of Fannin Innovation Studio, noted that "Our validated Raptamer platform provides a unique opportunity to rapidly develop selective, high-affinity ligands for targeted payload delivery to a variety of tissues, including tumors. The Raptamer platform provides complementary capabilities to Champions’ multiomic computational platform, and we are excited about our joint venture with Champions as well as the initial neo-antigenic target for our partnership."