Adcendo licenses Multitude anti-TF ADC in $1bn+ deal
Michael Pehl, Adcendo's chief executive officer
Danish biotech Adcendo has accelerated its progression to a clinical-stage biotech by licensing an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) from China's Multitude Therapeutics with potential in various forms of cancer.
Copenhagen-based Adcendo is paying what is rumoured to be tens of millions of dollars in upfront fees for rights to Multitude's anti-tissue factor (TF) ADC AMT-754 – now renamed ADCE-T02 – outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Milestone payments could take the value of the deal above $1 billion.
Multitude has already filed for approval to start clinical testing of the ADC in Australia and is due to make a similar application in the US "imminently", according to a statement from the two companies. Trials in Australia, which will be run by Adcendo, are due to start before year-end and will be followed by studies in the US and Europe.
They said TF is a clinically validated target that is highly expressed in a series of solid tumours, but has limited expression in healthy tissues, potentially limiting the risk of side effects. Potential indications include non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as colorectal, cervical, oesophageal, head and neck, bladder, and certain gastrointestinal cancers.
Adcendo, an ADC specialist first formed in 2017 that went public in 2021 with a €51 million Series A financing that has since been extended to €98 million (around $104 million), has been focusing its efforts on a drug targeting uPARAP for tumours like soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, and mesothelioma.
It is scheduled to file for approval to start trials of the ADC in the latter half of this year, with dosing slated for early 2025.
Adcendo's chief executive, Michael Pehl, said the company was impressed with the science behind Multitude's ADCs, particularly the linker and topoisomerase inhibitor payload components.
ADCE-T02 will be the first anti-TF ADC in the world with a topoisomerase I inhibitor-based linker/payload to enter clinical development in Australia, the US, and Europe, according to the partners. Topoisomerase I is an enzyme that plays a key role in DNA replication and transcription and inhibiting it can slow or stop cancer cell proliferation.
Shanghai-based biotech's ADC platform is designed to deliver a potent cell-killing punch to tumour cells, whilst limiting off-target side effects. It has five ADCs already in clinical testing led by an anti-folate receptor alpha ADC in phase 1.
ADCE-T02 "perfectly complements our existing unique first-in-class ADC pipeline and allows Adcendo to become a clinical-stage biotech company in Q4 2024," said Pehl. "TF is an excellent ADC target with ample opportunity in high unmet need indications."
There is already an anti-TF ADC on the market in the US, Pfizer and Genmab's Tivdak (tisotumab vedotin), which has been approved by the FDA since 2021 as a treatment for cervical cancer. At this year's ASCO cancer congress, Genmab reported results from the innovaTV 207 trial of the drug in head and neck cancer, part of a drive to extend its indications into other solid tumours.
