On October 4, 2016 Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Haruo Naito, "Eisai") reported that its research subsidiary Morphotek, Inc. (Headquarters: Pennsylvania, United States, President and CEO: Nicholas Nicolaides, "Morphotek") has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Eurofarma Laboratórios S.A. (Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil, President: Maurizio Billi, "Eurofarma") to develop and commercialize the monoclonal antibody farletuzumab (development code: MORAb-003) as a potential anticancer agent in Latin America (Press release, Eisai, OCT 4, 2016, View Source [SID:SID1234515584]). Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo! Under the terms of the agreement, Morphotek will receive from Eurofarma an upfront payment as well as scheduled development and sales milestone payments. Additionally, Morphotek will receive royalties from commercial sales of farletuzumab in Latin America. Morphotek will supply Eurofarma with clinical and commercial materials while Eurofarma has the option to assume responsibility for filling and packaging farletuzumab vials. Morphotek retains all rights to develop and commercialize farletuzumab in regions outside of Latin America.
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Discovered by Morphotek, farletuzumab is an investigational, humanized, monoclonal antibody that binds to folate receptor alpha (FRA), which is reported to be highly expressed on ovarian and several other epithelial cancer cells, but mostly absent from normal tissue. Farletuzumab is currently being studied in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase II clinical study in first-relapsed, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients with low levels of the CA-125 tumor antigen, a biomarker for ovarian cancer. The study is designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of farletuzumab in combination with standard chemotherapy.
Eisai positions oncology as a key therapeutic area, and is aiming to discover revolutionary new medicines with the potential to cure cancer. Through this collaboration, Eisai hopes to accelerate development and maximize the value of farletuzumab as it seeks to contribute further to addressing the diverse needs of, and increasing the benefits provided to, patients with cancer, their families, and healthcare providers.