EMD Serono, Sutro Biopharma Form ADC Partnership
EMD Serono, a subsidiary of Merck, and Sutro Biopharma in San Francisco announced a new partnership to collaborate on the production of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for undisclosed cancerous targets.
ADC’s are the next generation of cancer drugs which utilize biologic antibodies to deliver highly potent chemical medicines directly to cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue intact and undamaged. Because of the toxicity of traditional cancer treatments, ADC’s could be revolutionary to oncology research and medicine. ADC’s represent a relatively new but rapidly growing market in oncology research with over 30 clinical trials currently underway.
EMD Serono hopes to pair its expertise in target biology with Sutro’s patented Xpress CF technology, a cell-free protein synthesis platform capable of producing synthetic antibodies.
ADC’s have proved problematic in the past due to the instability of cell-based antibodies, which result in inconsistent manufacturing. Synthetic antibodies can be more specifically tailored and might solve some of the problems that have stymied researchers in the past.
William J. Newell, CEO of Sutro explains, “Our technology has been developed to allow loading of an antibody with multiple different agents and to enable a potential higher uptake of the drug in the tumor cell through an improved stability of the ADC.”
The agreement stipulates that Sutro will be responsible for delivering viable ADC’s to clinical trial, at which point EMD Serono will take over clinical development and potential marketing. Sutro will receive an up-front cash payment to begin research and will later be eligible to receive payments for each successful ADC, an overall deal worth a potential $298M.
Earlier this month, Sutro announced a collaboration with the University of California as a part of the Recombinant Antibody Network (RAN), an international consortium of experts funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The experts and institutes that form the consortium all specialize in the study and production of synthetic antibodies.
James Wells, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UC, explains the importance of this technology’s continued development, saying, “High-quality antibodies that perform well and exhibit high affinity and specificity are not only very important therapeutics for many diseases, they are also essential for basic research.”