German cancer startups announce big ticket deals

By PharmaCompass

2018-09-13

Impressions: 201 Article

Last month, Genentech, a member of the Roche group, announced it will pay German clinical stage biopharmaceutical company — Affimed — US$ 96 million upfront. It also committed to funding, thereby making Affimed eligible for up to an additional US$ 5.0 billion in revenues which includes milestone payments, and royalties on sales.

The German start up is focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies that harness the power of innate and adaptive immunity (NK and T cells).

Affimed will apply its proprietary Redirected Optimized Cell Killing (ROCK®) platform, which enables the generation of both NK cell and T cell-engaging antibodies, to discover and advance innate immune cell engager-based immunotherapeutics of interest to Genentech.

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In June, at the European Hematology Association, Affimed shared data of its lead candidate AFM13 in combination with Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) in patients with Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma. Assessment of 18 patients treated at the highest AFM13 dose showed best overall response rate (ORR) of 89 percent (16/18 patients).

Another German company Mologen AG announced a deal with Oncologie which could generate payouts of over US$ 1.16 billion (€1 billion) towards the development of its lead compound — lefitolimod.

In the near-term, Mologen would receive US$ 26.63 million (€23 million) to conduct the phase III Impala trial and build on the promising data from a phase II trial as a maintenance therapy after first-line induction chemotherapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Impala is a randomized phase III study in patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma.

In the field of active immunotherapies, great hopes are riding on substances that bind to very specific receptors, known as toll-like receptors (TLR). These receptors are part of the innate defense system. Through activation of the immune system, they are able to facilitate the recognition of tumor-associated antigens.

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Many years of research work have shown that toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) plays a particularly important role in the fight against cancer. Substances that activate TLR9 are referred to as TLR9 agonists and form the main focus of global research and development activities.

Lefitolimod is regarded as the best-in-class TLR9 agonist.

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Image Credit : Top Pharma & Biotech Deals - Aug 2018 by PharmaCompass is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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