Denovo Biopharma Acquires a Novel Late-Stage Oncology Drug and Expands into Protein Therapeutics

On December 10, 2020 Denovo Biopharma, a pioneer in applying precision medicine to develop innovative therapies, reported it has licensed its seventh late-stage drug asset: endostatin (now named DB108) from Jiangsu Wuzhong Pharmaceutical Group Corporation ("Wuzhong Pharmaceutical" (Press release, Denovo Biopharma, DEC 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234572636]). Denovo gains global rights (except China) to develop, manufacture and commercialize endostatin.

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DB108 is a recombinant protein drug that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis by inhibiting angiogenesis. DB108 is obtained by expression in E. coli, has a molecular weight of 20KDa, a total of 184 amino acids, and the same amino acid sequence as naturally-occuring human endostatin. Wuzhong Pharmaceutical studied DB108 as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC ) in a Phase 3 clinical trial. This trial demonstrated DB108 had a good safety and tolerability profile. Although DB108 showed no significant difference in median overall survival versus control, it had a significant efficacy benefit in median progression-free survival.

Denovo Biopharma expands into protein therapeutics with DB108 acquisition

Dr. Michael F. Haller, Denovo Biopharma’s Chief Business Officer, said, "Wuzhong Pharmaceutical’s pioneering work on DB108 has laid a good foundation for our follow-up research and development. We plan on developing a targeted product through our whole-genome scanning platform technology to predict the efficacy of DB108 in a specific patient population. This product enables our expansion into the field of protein therapeutics."

Mr. Yao Jianlin, Chairman of Wuzhong Pharmaceutical, said, "Denovo Biopharma is a leading precision medicine company with superb biomarker research and development capabilities. Recombinant human endostatin injection is a novel medicine developed by Wuzhong Pharmaceutical that may provide better treatment options for clinical patients worldwide."