On October 21, 2019 pH Pharma Co. Ltd., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing a diverse pipeline which includes therapeutic candidates for oncology, ophthalmology and NASH, and Immunome, Inc., a biotechnology company developing first-in-class antibodies as cancer therapeutics by harnessing the human immune response, reported the companies have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to discover unique antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) against multiple oncology targets (Press release, pH Pharma, OCT 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234632577]).
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Under the terms of the agreement, Immunome will conduct the initial antibody discovery and prioritization work with its proprietary platform. pH Pharma will conjugate the antibody candidates to its proprietary ADC payloads and test the ADC candidates for efficacy and safety.
"By combining Immunome’s ability to simultaneously identify novel targets and first-in-class human antibodies that work against them, and with pH Pharma’s capabilities in toxin payloads, there is tremendous potential to yield truly new and highly differentiated ADCs," said Purnanand Sarma, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Immunome. "pH Pharma’s innovative payloads act via a novel mechanism, and the resulting ADCs are expected to improve the potency of a subset of Immunome antibodies against a wide variety of cancer types."
Hoyoung Huh, M.D. Ph.D., chief executive officer of pH Pharma said, "This partnership offers a truly unique opportunity to bring together two proprietary platform technologies in order to create beneficial medicines for cancer patients. The Immunome platform represents an innovative approach to identify targets and antibodies in the immune repertoire of cancer patients that specifically contribute to positive health outcomes. Research collaborations such as this provide important validation of pH Pharma’s payload and ADC capabilities and are an important part of our strategy for building a leading global healthcare company."
The agreement terms state that pH Pharma will have the right to develop and commercialize the first development candidate generated in the collaboration with a selection process to determine rights to subsequent candidates. The company that develops and commercializes the candidate(s) will pay certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones to the other company worth up to $100 million for each product, with the potential for multiple candidates to be developed and commercialized. Royalties on net sales will be paid to the party that does not have commercial rights. Both parties will share in any revenue realized through sublicensing to third parties.