pH Pharma and Immunome Enter into Collaboration and License Agreement to Develop and Commercialize Multiple Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugates in Oncology
Under the terms of the agreement, Immunome will conduct the initial antibody discovery and prioritization work with its proprietary platform.
Companies to collaborate on the discovery of multiple novel antibody-drug conjugates that combine Immunome’s proprietary antibodies with pH Pharma’s novel toxin payloads
Either company eligible to receive up to $100 million per product in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones plus royalties on sales
EXTON, Pa. and MENLO PARK, Calif. and SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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, today announced the companies have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to discover unique antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) against multiple oncology targets.
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.
About Immunome
Immunome is developing first-in-class cancer therapies by unlocking the tumor-educated B cell response from patients. Its proprietary discovery engine identifies antibody-target pairs by interrogating the patient response with unparalleled depth, breadth, and speed. Using this rich source of antibody-target pairs, Immunome is developing new cancer therapies and exploring vast, untapped areas of cancer biology. For more information about the company, visit http://immunome.com.
About pH Pharma
pH Pharma Co. Ltd. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative healthcare products for unmet clinical and patient needs. The company aims to create a leading healthcare platform company in Seoul and Silicon Valley with expertise in developing innovative products. pH Pharma is dedicated to developing first-in-class/best-in-class therapeutic agents for the aging population and unmet markets. Its most advanced product candidate, PHP-201 is a Rho kinase inhibitor for the treatment of normal tension glaucoma (NTG), while a second, Phase 2-ready product candidate is a novel neutrophil elastase inhibitor being evaluated for the potential treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) plus rare genetic diseases. pH’s oncology efforts are focused on its Torpedo portfolio of novel toxin payloads for antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of multiple tumor types. Owing to their novel mechanism of action – modulation of the mammalian spliceosome - the most advanced candidates from the payload program have the potential to be first- and best-in-class ADC payloads, with the potential for synergy in combination with checkpoint inhibitors due to the formation of neoepitopes. For more information about the company, visit
http://ph-pharma.com.
Contacts
For pH Pharma:
Andrew McCandlish
Head of U.S. Business Development
[email protected]
For Immunome:
Purnanand Sarma
President and CEO
Immunome, Inc.
[email protected]
Immunome Media Contact:
Sara Zelkovic
LifeSci Public Relations
646-876-4933
[email protected]
