On October 20, 2021 F-star Therapeutics, Ltd. (NASDAQ: FSTX) ("F-star" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing next generation immunotherapies to transform the lives of patients with cancer, reported that it has entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Press release, F-star, OCT 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234591585]). The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
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Under the terms of the agreement, F-star will grant Janssen a worldwide, exclusive royalty-bearing license to research, develop, and commercialize up to five novel bispecific antibodies directed to Janssen therapeutic targets using F-star’s proprietary Fcab and mAb2 platforms. Janssen will be responsible for all research, development, and commercialization activities under the agreement.
Neil Brewis, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of F-star said, "We are pleased to collaborate with Janssen and leverage the science of F-star’s proprietary tetravalent bispecific technology. Beyond our proprietary pipeline, we believe there is broad potential for our mAb2 platform to produce multiple next-generation bispecific antibody therapeutics."
Under the terms of the agreement F-star is entitled to receive upfront fees of $17.5 million, near-term fees and potential further milestones of up to $1.35 billion. F-star is also eligible to receive potential tiered mid-single digit royalties on annual net sales.
About F-star’s Fcab and mAb2 Platforms
F-star’s proprietary platform allows substitutions in the Fc region of a natural antibody, creating two additional distinct antigen binding sites. The resulting Fcab (Fc with antigen binding) building blocks can be rapidly inserted into a natural IgG antibody format to create tetravalent mAb2 bispecific antibodies that bind, simultaneously, to two different antigens.
F-star’s mAb2 bispecific antibodies are designed to conserve the natural human antibody format, with greater than 95% identity, providing minimal systemic toxicity, low immunogenicity risk, and ease of manufacturability.
Fcab building blocks can be used to generate not only bispecific antibodies but also tri-specific antibodies and fusion proteins.
F-star has 230 granted patents and over 150 pending applications covering its Fcab and mAb2 technology and associated product pipeline.