Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) has announced a multi-year collaboration with Roche to discover novel potentially first-in-class antibody-based cancer therapeutics designed to fulfill major unmet patient needs in cancer therapy. OBT’s drug candidates include bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutics.
ADCs are one of the fastest-growing fields of oncology, with over 15 products approved and a world market of $7B to $10B. This was Roche’s third antibody deal of the year.
OBT said its recently launched enhanced proprietary OGAP-Verify discovery platform enables greater sensitivity and thereby selection of targets with improved attributes for drug development. Under the terms of the agreement, targets are identified via the OGAP-Verify discovery platform and will be validated through the research collaboration. Any further research, development, and commercialization efforts against these targets will be driven by Roche.
OBT will receive up to $36 million upfront payments from Roche and may be eligible to receive milestone payments potentially exceeding $1 billion, plus product royalties on net sales.
“We are proud to partner with Roche, a global leader in oncology, to accelerate the application of novel cancer targets identified through our proprietary discovery platform, OGAP-Verify,” said Christian Rohlff, PhD, CEO of OBT.
“This collaboration builds on our efforts to enhance, validate, and advance the discovery of oncology targets, and we look forward to leveraging Roche’s deep expertise to translate these insights into potential new treatments for patients. Our discovery philosophy is very patient-centric and Roche’s strength to integrate pharma and diagnostics is unique in the industry.”
OBT said its OGAP-Verify platform’s enhanced sensitivity, specificity, and reliability will significantly accelerate identification and validation of targets with robust scientific support.
The company reported that three programs originating from OGAP-Verify are now in clinical development in the United States and Europe. They say their IO discovery process provides unique insights into the cancer-immune cell synapse and has identified several novel monoclonal and bispecific antibody candidates for cancer therapies.
OBT’s lead clinical program, OBT076, initiated expansion in a U.S. clinical trial in 2021 in patients with advanced or refractory solid tumors, including gastric, bladder, ovarian, and lung cancer, where CD205 is overexpressed. Infiltration of tumors by immunosuppressive cells correlates with adverse outcomes (lower progression free and overall survival), suggesting that this process contributes to the progression of several cancers.
The company said the rest of its pipeline and development capabilities have been tested in multiple strategic partnerships including with Boehringer Ingelheim, ImmunoGen (now part of Abbvie), and Zymeworks as well as other world leaders in antibody development such as Amgen, WuXi, Medarex (BMS), and Alere (Abbott).
OBT said OGAP-Verify is the world’s largest proprietary membrane protein abundance database, containing data on approximately 7,000 membrane proteins across most solid and hematological malignancies, as well as normal tissues.
The company has generated data using quantitative mass spectrometry directly on patient cancer biopsies and normal tissues. High sensitivity, OBT said, allows the detection of membrane proteins at 50 copies per cell on the cell’s surface. OBT added: “The sensitivity surpasses IHC and de-risks selection of new oncology targets. Average abundance of the tumor antigen target in patient tissue samples can be estimated allowing drug modality and payload selection.”
