On January 8, 2016 Mylan N.V. (NASDAQ, TASE: MYL) reported that it has entered into an exclusive global collaboration agreement with Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNTA) to develop, manufacture and commercialize six of Momenta’s current biosimilar candidates, including Momenta’s biosimilar candidate, ORENCIA (abatacept) (Press release, Mylan, JAN 8, 2016, View Source [SID1234523057]).

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch commented, "Mylan’s long-stated strategy has been to strategically invest in the long-term drivers of our future growth, both through our strong internal focus on R&D and through external collaboration with industry-leading partners. Biosimilars have long been one of these areas of important future growth, both for our company and our industry, given the rapidly growing market for biologic products, the undeniable patient need for more affordable versions of these life-saving medicines, and the attractive competitive landscape for the companies that are able to successfully bring these complex products at scale to the global market. This collaboration with Momenta, which is highly complementary to our partnership with Biocon, will position us as a definitive world leader in biosimilars, with a broad portfolio of 15 biosimilar/insulin analog generic products in development and the scale required to maximize investment in this area. Looking forward, Mylan will continue to expand and diversify its portfolio into such complex products, further differentiating us from other leading generics companies and establishing us at the forefront of the biologics space, while also ensuring we maintain one of the broadest, highest quality portfolios in our industry."

"This exciting collaboration with Momenta is focused on the next wave of biosimilar products and represents an important next step for Mylan, leveraging Momenta’s unique technology capabilities and Mylan’s strong science, biosimilar-development experience, operational excellence and expansive global commercial footprint. Importantly, this collaboration builds upon Mylan’s existing successful biologics and insulins collaboration with Biocon, which is focused on more near-term biosimilar opportunities. Through these partnerships, as well as the strong internal capabilities we have cultivated, Mylan is further expanding what is already one of the industry’s most robust and diverse biosimilar portfolios and helping to ensure we can deliver enhanced access to these critical products to patients around the world," continued Ms. Bresch.

Craig A. Wheeler, president and chief executive officer of Momenta Pharmaceuticals, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Mylan as our new collaboration partner for biosimilars. Our two companies have a common focus on building an industry-leading biosimilar portfolio that offers safe, effective and affordable products to the patients that need them. By combining Momenta’s proven capabilities in complex-product development and Mylan’s world-class global R&D, supply chain and commercial infrastructure, we are well positioned to become a strong competitor in this developing field. Our joint vision is to bring high quality, cost-effective biosimilar products to markets worldwide, and we believe our success will deliver a strong return to our companies’ stakeholders."

Under the agreement with Momenta, Mylan will make an up-front cash payment of $45 million and up to $200 million in contingent milestone-related payments to Momenta, with each company sharing equally in the costs and profits with respect to the products. The companies will be jointly responsible for product development, and Mylan will lead worldwide commercialization efforts. All other financial terms and product details remain confidential.

Mylan’s collaboration with Momenta builds upon Mylan’s existing biologics and insulin analog partnership with Biocon. The Biocon partnership includes six biosimilar programs (trastuzumab, pegfilgrastim, adalimumab, bevacizumab, etanercept and filgrastim) and three insulin analogs (glargine, lispro and aspart). Five of these biosimilar programs have successfully completed Phase I clinical trials, and four of the programs are in active Phase III testing. Mylan and Biocon plan on submitting three biosimilar applications and one insulin application in the U.S. and Europe in 2016. Mylan already has successfully launched its trastuzumab biosimilar product in India and other emerging markets.

Mylan President Rajiv Malik commented, "Mylan has been fully engaged in the development of biosimilars with our partner Biocon for the last six years. During that time, Mylan has cultivated strong experience and expertise in the development of biosimilar products, and is executing on our programs with the scientific and analytical rigor required to fulfill health-authority expectations. Based upon our proactive and informative interactions with global health authorities on our nine active programs, we are extremely optimistic about the strength of our current development programs with Biocon, and we look forward to deploying our expertise in our collaboration with Momenta."

On January 8, 2016 Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) reported an expansion of its Research & Development (R&D) investment strategy to include early-stage companies on the leading edge of scientific innovation, providing them with both equity and access to resources for research in promising areas aligned with Pfizer’s core interests (Press release, Pfizer, JAN 8, 2016, View Source [SID:1234508725]). The first four investments of the newly focused initiative include $46 million in financing to companies at early stages of the discovery process that are actively exploring Conditionally Active Biologics (CABs), immuno-oncology, neurodegenerative technologies and gene therapy. Additional opportunities will continue to be identified by Pfizer’s scientific leadership through their active involvement, and Pfizer will help recipient companies fully explore their platforms in the hopes of advancing new therapeutic pathways.

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"There is exciting scientific discovery happening both within Pfizer and beyond our walls, and we look forward to continuing to explore opportunities to bring our resources to emerging companies investigating in areas where we feel we could make a difference for patients," said Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., President of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. "The key for Pfizer is to be flexible in how we partner with different companies; we use a range of investment vehicles and collaboration models in R&D to help ensure we tap into the vast, rapidly-evolving ecosystem of healthcare innovation, looking to complement each other’s capabilities so that together we can make a bigger impact."

Today, Pfizer is announcing its investments in the following companies:

BioAtla employs expertise in protein engineering to develop monoclonal antibodies with CAB profiles, a new class of biologic therapeutics that are activated in selected microenvironments within the body, such as those associated with cancerous tumors. As part of the agreement, BioAtla and Pfizer will each have a license to the other’s respective technology to pursue the development and commercialization of several drug-conjugated conditionally-active antibodies. Pfizer also gains an exclusive option to develop and commercialize BioAtla CAB antibodies that target CTLA4, an immuno-oncology target in humans.

NextCure Inc., a new biopharmaceutical company Pfizer helped to form, is focused on the discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapeutic products. NextCure was founded by Michael Richman, former CEO of Amplimmune, Inc., who will serve as president and CEO, and Lieping Chen, M.D., Ph.D., United Technologies Endowed Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. The company will develop product candidates licensed from Dr. Chen’s laboratory utilizing a proprietary platform to discover and develop potential novel immuno-oncology targets.

Cortexyme, Inc. is developing novel treatments that aim to alter the course of neurodegenerative diseases. The company is seeking to develop therapeutics based on data supporting a new theory about the underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative disorders, targeting a specific, undisclosed pathogen linked to neurodegeneration. The target has been validated in a number of animal models and Cortexyme is currently testing several potential lead therapeutics in preclinical studies.
4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc., an emerging biopharmaceutical company, is working to design, develop and commercialize potentially transformative gene therapy products for serious unmet medical conditions. The company’s Therapeutic Vector Evolution discovery platform allows for the generation of gene vectors that are optimized for efficient gene delivery and uptake, tissue specificity, and evasion of pre-existing antibodies present in most patients. With this investment, Pfizer has been granted an option to exclusively license one or more adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for selected cardiac disease-related targets.

Through flexible equity investment and partnership models, Pfizer provides access to world-class scientists, expertise and drug-discovery capabilities, including enabling proprietary technologies, and actively participates in the development of early-stage innovations. The ultimate goal of these investments is to accelerate the pace at which good scientific ideas can become promising therapies. This expanded R&D investment strategy is focused on high-priority therapeutic areas of research where Pfizer is best positioned to bring unique, high-impact therapies to patients not well-served by current treatments. Particular areas meeting these criteria include chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, vaccines, oncology, neuroscience and pain, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and rare diseases.

On January 7, 2016 OncoResponse, an immuno-oncology antibody discovery company, and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University reported a collaboration to identify antibodies against novel targets in elite responders to cancer immunotherapy (Press release, OncoResponse, JAN 7, 2016, View Source [SID1234516435]). The agreement provides OncoResponse with access to OHSU patient samples in two cancer indications, prostate cancer and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), for immune repertoire screening to identify antibodies with exceptional reactivity from patients who have elite responses to cancer immunotherapies.

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"By interrogating the humoral response of patients who have responded exceptionally well to immunotherapy, we can identify rare cancer-fighting antibodies and novel targets that may lead to the development of improved cancer treatments," said Clifford J. Stocks, CEO of OncoResponse. "This collaboration will allow us access to invaluable patient sample sets that will undoubtedly be instrumental to the understanding of the immune response to cancer."

Using a validated platform technology to rapidly screen antibodies made by the human immune system, OncoResponse scientists will identify those with exceptional reactivity and leverage this knowledge to identify potential targets for novel therapeutic development. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We are deeply committed to the development of improved cancer treatments for patients in need," said Tomasz Beer, M.D., deputy director, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. "This collaboration will provide valuable data that will allow us to develop a better understanding of what makes certain treatments successful and will inform the development of new therapies that have the potential to significantly impact patients’ lives."

On January 7, 2016 CANbridge Life Sciences reported that it has completed a biomarker study in Chinese patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) for expression of CD95 ligand, the target of its first candidate for clinical development, CAN008, also known as APG101 (Press release, CANbridge Life Sciences, JAN 7, 2016, View Source [SID:1234510067]). The study demonstrated a high degree of CD95 ligand expression consistency between geographically-diverse Chinese and Western GBM patients. CAN008 is a fully-human fusion protein that inhibits the CD95 ligand, a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily. By blocking the CD95 ligand, CAN008 restores the immune response against tumors and inhibits invasive tumor cell growth.

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Based on this confirmatory biomarker study, CANbridge plans to initiate a CAN008 Phase I/II study in newly-diagnosed GBM in Taiwan and expects to dose the first patient in the second half of 2016. In other news, CANbridge announced that it has expanded the licensed territories from Germany’s Apogenix (www.apogenix.com), which is developing APG101 in all other territories, to include Taiwan. In July, CANbridge entered into an exclusive license agreement with Apogenix to develop, manufacture and commercialize APG101 in GBM, with options for other indications, in China, Hong Kong and Macao. Both companies are privately-held.

"The study showing the correlation between Western and Chinese biomarker expression validates our belief that CAN008 is a strong candidate for glioblastoma treatment development in Taiwan and other Chinese territories," said Mark Goldberg, MD, CANbridge Chief Medical Officer and practicing hematologist and oncologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. "In a Phase II study conducted in Europe, CAN008 showed an improved overall survival benefit in patients with relapsed glioblastoma, especially among patients who expressed the CD95 ligand."

"The results from the biomarker study pave the way for us to advance to our first clinical trial in Asia, executing on our mission to bring promising Western drug candidates to underserved Chinese markets," said James Xue, CANbridge Chairman and CEO. "Brain cancer mortality rates are among the ten highest cancer death rates in China, where the treatment options are even more limited than in the West. We look forward to initiating one of the first immuno-oncology clinical treatment programs in China for this deadly cancer.

On January 7, 2016 Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. reported that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: JUNO) have entered into an exclusive license agreement for a novel, fully-human binding domain targeting MUC16 to be used for the potential development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cell therapies for patients with MUC16 positive cancers, including ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancers (Press release, Eureka Therapeutics, JAN 7, 2016, View Source [SID:SID1234515201]). The binder was developed under a collaboration agreement between Eureka Therapeutics and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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"We are excited that Juno Therapeutics, a leader in CAR and TCR technologies, will pursue the development of this binding domain as a CAR cell therapy," said Dr. Cheng Liu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. "CAR cell therapy has shown promising potential for treating hematologic malignancies, and Eureka is working to accelerate the potential of the technology in a broader array of patients by developing antibodies that can recognize solid tumor antigens with the stringency required for CAR immunotherapy."

"We are pleased to enter into this agreement, as we continue to pursue the development of fully-human binding domains, with the goal of optimizing cell persistence and potential patient benefit of our engineered cells," said Mark Frohlich, M.D., Juno’s Executive Vice President, Development and Portfolio Strategy. "We opened a Phase I trial for our MUC16/IL-12 armored CAR product candidate in 2015, and if the safety and efficacy results are promising, this collaboration will allow us to more rapidly transition from the current murine binding domain to a fully-human binding domain."

Under the terms of the exclusive license agreement, Memorial Sloan Kettering granted Juno Therapeutics an exclusive, worldwide license, under both Memorial Sloan Kettering’s and Eureka’s rights to certain MUC16 binding domains, to develop and commercialize the MUC16 binding domains as part of CAR cell therapies for all indications. In return, Memorial Sloan Kettering will receive an upfront payment and potential future payments upon achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales milestones, and annual net sales royalty payments. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement between Eureka and Memorial Sloan Kettering, Eureka will receive a portion of these payments from Memorial Sloan Kettering. Juno will fund additional development and commercialization activities.