Oxford BioTherapeutics, Menarini Announce Second ADC Candidate

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) and Berlin Chemie/Menarini, two companies that partnered in 2012, announced their second of five projected anti-body drug conjugate (ADC) candidates. This newest addition — currently preparing to advance into clinical trials — targets Non-Hodgkin’s B-Cell Lymphoma, solid tumors, and some subsets of breast cancer.

According to the press release, this new candidate, which is based on technology developed by ImmunoGen, has undergone extensive preclinical testing, which proved its efficacy in solid and liquid tumor models and has passed initial toxicology testing.

Under the terms of the $1 billion dollar deal, the companies will collaborate on a total of five anti-body-based cancer therapies. The companies’ first collaboration on an ADC was announced in 2013 and targets acute myeloid leukemia.

In a released statement, both Christian Rohlff, CEO of OBT and Andrew Slade, CEO of Menarini, expressed their satisfaction with the progress of their companies’ partnership and the advances reached with OBT’s ADC pipeline.

In 2013, Slade explained that the goal of the collaboration is to “focus on cancer research where the available treatments are not very effective.”

The American Cancer Society reports that Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the U.S and estimates 70,800 American cases will be reported this year.

As with all cancers, NHL prognosis depends on when the cancer is diagnosed, but oncology research universally suggests that existing traditional cancer treatments are physically devastating and not nearly as effective as they could be.

ADCs are one of the fastest growing sectors of oncology research and combine the potency of traditional chemical drugs with the targeting capabilities of biologics. These treatments, when effective, destroy cancerous cells while leaving surrounding healthy tissue intact.

In August, Roots Analysis released the second edition of an ADC market analysis, which projects the market’s growth over the next ten years and details some of the challenges developers face.

Though new research and development collaborations are cropping up every day, only two ADC’s are currently being marketed for clinical use. However, Roots projects that with Seattle Genetics’ Adcetris and Genentech’s Kadcyla alone, the ADC market is expected to be worth over $600 million in 2014.

If expected future commercial launches proceed as planned, Roots projects that the ADC business will be worth over $10 billion by 2024.