Exelixis and Adagene Enter into Collaboration and License Agreement to Develop Novel Masked Antibody-Drug Conjugate Therapies with Improved Safety and Efficacy Profiles

On February 1, 2021 Exelixis, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXEL) and Adagene reported a collaboration and license agreement under which Exelixis will utilize Adagene’s SAFEbody technology platform to generate masked versions of monoclonal antibodies from Exelixis’ growing preclinical pipeline for the development of ADCs or other innovative biologics against Exelixis-nominated targets (Press release, Exelixis, FEB 1, 2021, View Source [SID1234574449]). Under the terms of the agreement, Exelixis will make an upfront payment of $11 million to Adagene and will have the ability to nominate two targets during the collaboration term. Adagene will be eligible for development and commercialization milestones, as well as royalties on net sales of products developed around each of these targets.

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"SAFEbody provides a solution to on-target off-tumor toxicity, which is a long-lasting challenge associated with many approved antibody therapeutics," said Peter Luo, Ph.D., Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Adagene. "This partnership with Exelixis strengthens our growing roster of collaborations with global biopharmaceutical companies. We are very pleased to collaborate with Exelixis and look forward to the company’s development of ADCs that leverage our SAFEbody technology."

Biologic therapies, including therapeutic antibodies such as ADCs, are designed to bind to their targets with high efficiency. However, while the targets for biologic cancer therapies are expressed at high levels in cancer cells, many are also expressed at lower levels on healthy cells. Binding of these therapies to healthy cells may lead to unwanted safety or tolerability issues. Adagene’s SAFEbody platform is designed to overcome this challenge by incorporating a masking peptide that covers the binding domain of the biologic therapy. Specific conditions within the tumor environment allow the biologic therapy to preferentially bind to its target in tumor cells. This allows for improved tumor-specific targeting of antibodies while minimizing on-target toxicity in healthy tissues. Adagene’s most advanced SAFEbody candidate has been approved to start a clinical trial in Australia and the United States.

"As we expand our pipeline beyond small molecule therapies, we are committed to developing novel biotherapeutics that are optimized for safety and efficacy," said Peter Lamb, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Scientific Strategy and Chief Scientific Officer of Exelixis. "We believe the SAFEbody platform has the potential to significantly improve the safety profile of ADCs, and we will initially focus on incorporating this innovative technology into novel ADCs that also utilize next-generation linkers and payloads. The combination of these cutting-edge technologies is expected to yield ADC product candidates with differentiated target profiles and/or improved therapeutic indices. We are committed to expanding our development pipeline into additional therapeutic classes even as we drive additional momentum toward broadening the label for cabozantinib into additional cancer indications."