On April 20, 2020 Epsilogen (formerly IGEM Therapeutics), a global leader in the development of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, reported that it has in-licenced exclusive global rights to MOv18 IgE, an anti-folate receptor alpha IgE antibody from King’s College London (KCL) (Press release, IGEM Therapeutics, APR 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234556608]). Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
The antibody, which was developed at KCL in collaboration with Cancer Research UK, is the first therapeutic IgE antibody to enter clinical trials. Cancer Research UK is funding, sponsoring and conducting an on-going phase I clinical trial in patients with advanced cancer expressing folate receptor alpha (FR alpha). As separately announced today, interim data from this trial will be presented at the forthcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting I which begins on 27 April 2020. Folate receptor alpha (FR alpha) is selectively expressed most commonly on the surface of ovarian cancer cells, making it a promising target for IgE antibody therapy for this cancer which has relatively few effective treatment alternatives.
Epsilogen will continue the further clinical development of MOv18 IgE and has put in place a comprehensive manufacturing programme with a leading contract development and manufacturing organisation. Funding for this manufacturing work has been provided by a further £3 million Series A2 investment from Epsilogen’s existing investors Epidarex Capital, ALSA Holdings and the UCL Technology Fund.
Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of Epsilogen, said:
"We are very pleased to have in-licensed this promising new therapy which has the potential to target a very serious cancer with relatively few effective treatment alternatives. We are grateful to our scientific founders Professors Sophia Karagiannis and James Spicer of KCL for conducting the early scientific research on MOv18 IgE and also to Cancer Research UK for investing in and developing the product through its early clinical phase. We also wish to thank our investor group for continuing to support us with further financing via the Series A2."