Astellas and Elpiscience enter collaboration for novel bispecific macrophage engager
Betsy Goodfellow | January 2, 2024 | News story | Research and Development | Astellas, Cancer, Elpiscience, Oncology, bispecific macrophage
Elpiscience Biopharma and Astellas Pharma have announced that they have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement for novel bispecific macrophage enhancers, ES019 as well as another programme.
The companies will collaboratively undertake early-stage research for the two programmes, with Elpiscience granting Astellas the right to add up to two additional programmes to the collaboration. If Astellas adds these two further programmes, Elpiscience is expected to grant Astellas the exclusive right to further research, develop, manufacture and commercialise the products from each programme.
Under the terms of the agreement, Elpiscience will receive up to $37m, including an upfront payment and license option fees, along with additional research funding from Astellas to advance the programmes.
Darren Ji MD PhD, chairman and chief executive officer of Elpiscience, commented: “We are pleased to collaborate with Astellas, a world leader of innovative medicines, on developing game-changing therapies for cancer. BiME innovated at Elpiscience represents a paradigm shift from the conventional cell engagers dominated by T-cells. The therapeutic molecules generated from the BiME platform have the potential of changing the clinical practice for tumours where tumour-associated macrophages are highly abundant, and no effective therapies are available. We look forward to working with Astellas to bring these exciting sciences to the bedside of global patients.”
Adam Pearson, chief strategy officer at Astellas, added: “Astellas has a strong commitment to developing innovative cancer treatments and have positioned Immuno-Oncology as one of the Primary Focuses of our R&D strategy. Elpiscience has outstanding expertise in developing next generation immunotherapies. We hope this collaboration will bring synergies between the two companies’ cutting-edge research and will ultimately lead to the development of new treatments for patients with cancer.”
Betsy Goodfellow
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