Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd announced that it will pay Glycotope $132.5 million to acquire intellectual property rights of the anti-tumor-associated mucin-1 (TA-MUC1) antibody, gatipotuzumab. Such payment by Daiichi Sankyo satisfies all potential clinical, regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as royalties of products that include gatipotuzumab as part of a 2018 licensing agreement between the parties. In 2018, Daiichi Sankyo in-licensed exclusive rights to develop and commercialize gatipotuzumab worldwide as an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) from Glycotope.
The anti-TA-MUC1 is the antibody contained in DS-3939, an ADC being developed by Daiichi Sankyo. DS-3939 is a specifically engineered potential first-in-class TA-MUC1 directed medicine designed using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary DXd ADC technology. DS-3939 is currently being evaluated in a phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with several types of advanced solid tumors including non-small cell lung, breast, urothelial, ovarian, biliary tract and pancreatic cancer.
TA-MUC1 is a tumor-specific transmembrane glycoprotein with aberrant glycosylation due to changes of the expression patterns of some sialyltransferases.1 Based on the overexpression of TA-MUC1 in most human epithelial cancers, it is an attractive target for cancer therapy.2 Currently, there are no TA-MUC1 directed therapies approved for any type of cancer.
DS-3939 is an investigational potential first-in-class TA-MUC1 directed ADC. Designed using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary DXd ADC technology, DS-3939 is comprised of a humanized anti-TA-MUC1 antibody, attached to a number of topoisomerase I inhibitor payloads (an exatecan derivative, DXd) via tetrapeptide-based cleavable linkers.
SOURCE: Businesswire
