The University of Texas MD Anderson and Xencor, Inc. Cancer Center have published today a strategic research collaboration and commercialization agreement to develop a new CD3 bispecific antibody therapeutic treatment for potential treatment of cancer patients.
This collaboration combines innovative XenAb XmAb® technology and protein engineering expertise to create bispecific antibodies with MD Anderson’s expertise in the research and discovery of novel therapeutic antibodies, including the platform Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT), part of Discovery Therapeutics MD Anderson. department.
“Xencor’s modular antibody engineering platform enables the rapid generation of XmAb® bispecific antibodies, and our research collaboration with MD Anderson will further expand the use of our technology to explore novel therapeutic targets, which could create new therapies for patients with cancer, “said John Desjarlais, Ph.D., senior vice president and chief scientific officer at Xencor.
Bispecific antibodies involved in T cells are designed to recognize and bind antigen on tumor cells as well as active receptors on T cells, such as CD3, to directly recruit and activate T cells tumor cells.
Xencor modular scaffolding for the engineering of bispecific antibodies is the XmAb bispecific Fc domain, which enables the formation of stable antibodies by new methods of action against tumors.
There is an urgent need to identify new therapeutic targets and develop antibody-based strategies to stimulate an immune response against the tumors that express them. Xencor’s multivariate CD3 bispecific antibody platform enables us to rapidly develop and study therapies against interesting tumor targets, and we look forward to evaluating the first candidates that was engineered as part of this collaboration.. “
Dongxing Zha, Ph.D, Head of ORBIT Platform Institute, Texs University MD Anderson Cancer Center
MD Anderson works to identify and develop antibodies, collaborating with Xencor to apply its bispecific XmAb technology to create therapeutic candidates. MD Anderson then directs and funds all preclinical activities to advance candidates to clinical studies.
Xencor has some unique options to allow worldwide rights to develop and commercialize new medicines that may arise from the research collaboration. For programs not licensed by Xencor, Xencor will receive a portion of future payments received by MD Anderson. Xencor and MD Anderson enter the collaboration with two unpublished antibody candidates, which have not been published.
Source:
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center