Chipscreen Licences Eucure Biopharma's Keytruda Competitor for Greater China
Chipscreen NewWay Biosciences has bought the regional rights to Eucure Biopharma’s bispecific antibody candidate. Chipscreen will have the right to develop clinically and commercialise the drug in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Eucure, a subsidiary of Chinese biotech Biocytogen, will retain the right to develop and market the therapy outside Greater China.
The drug, provisionally called YH008, is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that simultaneously activates CD40 and inhibits PD-1. While PD-1 is a common target for checkpoint inhibitors, CD40 has been suggested by multiple studies to be a pathway that can increase counts of cancer killing CD8+ T cells in the tumour microenvironment.
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“The unique mechanism of action of YH008 bring together the synergies of immune activation and immunosuppressive blockade, and can reduce toxic side effects and increase safety,” said Bin Liu, Head of the Center of Antibody Early R&D at Chipscreen NewWay.
He continued: “The clinical potential of YH008 is worth looking forward to and it is a good addition to the products under development of Chipscreen NewWay.”
Chinese Bioscience company Chipscreen has bought the licence for 40 million CNY (5.8 million USD) upfront which allows the company to develop, market, and commercialise the drug regionally. In addition to this, Eucure Biopharma will potentially receive up to 360 million CNY (51.9 million USD) in development milestone payments, 196 million CNY (28.25 million USD) in sales milestone payments, as well as royalties.
The partnership hopes to achieve a competitive and marketable product that helps patients with solid tumour indications. The Investigational New Drug (IND) application for clinical trials of YH008 has been cleared by both the US FDA and Chinese NMPA.
Yuelei Shen, President and CEO of Biocytogen, commented: “With this agreement in place, we will work together to accelerate YH008’s entry into the market to benefit patients.”
The antibody will compete with existing immune checkpoint inhibitors such as MSD’s Keytruda, which targets PD-1 for multiple cancer indications.
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