Daiichi Sankyo, Glycotope to develop gatipotuzumab antibody drug conjugate

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited and Glycotope GmbH have entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement to develop an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) by combining Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary ADC technology with Glycotope’s investigational tumor-associated TA-MUC1 antibody gatipotuzumab (formerly PankoMab-GEX), building on a previous 2017 option agreement.

Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Daiichi Sankyo has worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize gatipotuzumab as an ADC. Glycotope will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for clinical, regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as royalties on net sales worldwide from Daiichi Sankyo. Specific financial terms have not been disclosed.

ADCs are targeted cancer medicines that deliver cytotoxic chemotherapy (“payload”) to cancer cells via a linker attached to a monoclonal antibody that binds to a specific target expressed on cancer cells. Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary ADC technology is designed to target and deliver chemotherapy inside cancer cells and reduce systemic exposure to the cytotoxic payload (or chemotherapy) compared to the way chemotherapy is commonly delivered. Gatipotuzumab is an investigational monoclonal antibody that enables tumor-specific binding to a novel carbohydrate-induced conformational epitope, TA-MUC1, which is extensively expressed in many tumor types including ovarian, lung and breast.

Glycotope is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company built on world-leading glyco-biology expertise. The company draws on its long experience in glyco-biology to create highly specific mAbs targeting glyco-epitopes, and glyco-optimized mAbs with enhanced performance. Glycotope has a growing pipeline of high-value cancer therapies focused around the glyco-optimized antibody, gatipotuzumab, which targets the novel glyco-epitope target TA-MUC1. Its lead clinical programme is in phase 1b in combination with tomuzotuximab, a glyco-optimized second-generation anti-EGFR mAb. Glycotope has entered a partnership with Daiichi Sankyo for antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and is also exploring multiple additional formats based on gatipotuzumab.