Glenmark Acquires Development, Commercial Rights For Novel Cancer Molecule From US Firm
What can be called as a reverse trend in India’s drug research deals, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals entered into a licensing agreement with the Boston-based APC Therapeutics Inc, a biopharmaceutical research firm focused on building a portfolio of immuno-oncology therapies, acquiring rights of a potential cancer drug molecule that is currently under development.
Glenmark has always been in the forefront of drug discovery process and it typically licenses out its potential drug candidates to large foreign drug makers in the pre-clinical stage.
This has been the trend in India as the local companies, which are engaged in the discovery process, can’t typically afford to take their molecules up through the advanced development process, including the costlier multi-country trials.
Glenmark has so far licensed out at least a dozen molecules from its discovery portfolio to multinational drugmakers, including Merck, Sanofi and many others.
However, by making such a reverse deal, Glenmark has made a pioneering move in the history of Indian generic industry. The company’s stock rose 0.25 per cent to Rs 630 a unit on BSE on Wednesday, while the landmark index Sensex ended at 30283.64 pints, down 0.04 per cent.
The oncology compound, which Glenmark has now licensed from the US researcher is based on Antigen Presenting Cell (APC) biology.
It has the potential to be used as a monotherapy or in combination with approved therapies to address unmet needs in cancer treatment.
“This asset adds to our robust biologics pipeline of targeted IO therapies,” said Kurt Stoeckli, President and Chief Scientific Officer at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.
“The mechanism of action of APC biology is very intriguing and has the potential to be transformative in cancer treatment by triggering powerful immunologic responses to tumours that may lead to deeper and more durable responses to treatment,” he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, Glenmark will license the product from APC Therapeutics, and manage all clinical development including regulatory filings and commercialization worldwide. APC Therapeutics will receive development milestones and sales royalty payments.
“Glenmark is an ideal partner to advance such an important scientific breakthrough treatment to patients with cancer,” said Vinod Patel and Venkateshwar Reddy, the co-founders of APC Therapeutics.
“This partnership is strategically significant for APC Therapeutics as it validates and advances our commitment to bring the right immunotherapies to the right patient populations.”
The global oncology market is growing exponentially and projected to exceed $150 billion by 2020, according to figures from drug market researcher IMS Health. Driving this growth is the transition from short-term cytotoxic treatments towards precision medicines, most notably IO agents providing the substantial increase in long-term survival. Because of these improvements, Immuno-Oncology is one of the most promising and fastest growing areas of cancer treatment and research.
The companies, however, have not disclosed the deal value and the details of milestone payments or royalties.
Glenmark is one of India’s innovation- led generic pharmaceutical companies and it has operations in more than 50 countries. It has a diverse research pipeline with several compounds in various stages of clinical development, primarily focused in the areas of oncology, respiratory, and dermatology and includes three bispecific monoclonal antibodies (bsABs) and an antibody-based agonist targeting OX40R. The immuno-oncology pipeline the company currently includes four candidates being studied in a wide range of tumour types.
While APC Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company building a unique immuno- oncology portfolio with a focus on the development of novel small molecule therapies. Its approach involves antigen-presenting cell mechanisms of action and a patient stratification to match patients most likely to respond.
