MSD chooses partner to develop ‘game-changing’ cancer therapies
pharmafile | January 6, 2016 | News story | Research and Development | CPABs, Cancer, Cell-Penetrating Alphabodies, Complix, MSD, autoimmune diseases
MSD has entered a research collaboration with biopharma company Complix, using the company’s proprietary technology to develop new treatments for cancer.
The collaboration will make use of Complix’s Cell-Penetrating Alphabodies (CPABs) platform, with which the company is developing a pipeline of proteins, called Alphabodies, for investigation as treatments for cancer, and also severe autoimmune diseases.
Under the terms of the agreement, MSD will fund Complix’s research and has an option to the exclusive, worldwide rights for any of the resulting compounds. The company will receive an upfront payment and potential development milestones of up to $280 million, as well as tiered sales royalties.
CPABs are a new class of small proteins engineered to bind to a variety of antigens. Data show CPABs have the potential to address a wide range of disease targets, including intracellular targets that are difficult for current classes of existing therapies. Complix says 80% of known disease targets are ‘undruggable’ by antibodies or small chemical drugs.
The Belgium-based company has shown that CPABs have the unique ability to enter tumour cells effectively and alter protein-to-protein interactions within the cell, which play a key role in a broad range of cancers. CPABs are also able to enter many different types of tumour cells and remain stable within the tumour tissue for up to 24 hours.
Dr Mark Vaeck, chief executive of Complix, comments: “This collaboration with MSD is a major corporate milestone for Complix and highlights the potential of our unique CPAB platform, which we believe will deliver game-changing biotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer. With such a high quality partner, I am confident that Complix will be able to rapidly progress the development of CPAB drug candidates that we will generate against cancer targets of interest to MSD. I am very much looking forward to working with the team of MSD.”
Dr Rob Kastelein, scientific associate vice president, MSD Research Laboratories, says: “This collaboration with Complix is an excellent example of our focus on finding and bringing forward new approaches that will further enhance and complement our immuno-oncology clinical development program. This sort of deep and intensive type of collaboration is at the core of MSD’s vision to bring forward innovative, breakthrough science that extends the lives of patients with cancer.”
Joel Levy
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