On October 8, 2019 Sutro Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRO) reported that it has achieved a milestone under its collaboration and license agreement with the healthcare division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and is entitled to receive a milestone payment (Press release, Sutro Biopharma, OCT 8, 2019, View Source [SID1234540101]). The milestone was achieved upon the designation by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany of an undisclosed bispecific antibody drug conjugate (ADC) as a clinical development candidate with approval to advance to IND-enabling studies. This candidate was discovered using Sutro’s XpressCF+ drug discovery and manufacturing technology and includes a proprietary linker-warhead also discovered by Sutro. The ADC is based on Merck´s strand-exchange engineered domain (SEED) platform to generate bispecific antibody-like molecules. As part of the agreement, Sutro will manufacture the ADC immediately for the early clinical supply of the candidate and is eligible for further milestones and royalties. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany will be responsible for drug product, clinical development and commercialization of this clinical development candidate.
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"The achievement of this milestone marks our fourth ADC clinical product candidate in three years, further validating our XpressCF+ drug discovery and manufacturing technology which enables iterative optimization through cell-free protein synthesis and site specific conjugation as well as our linker-warhead, all of which are designed to achieve an improved therapeutic window," said Bill Newell, Sutro’s Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany as we seek to discover the next-generation of oncology therapeutics and transform the lives of cancer patients in urgent need of new therapies."
"We are extremely excited to reach this milestone; the development of a therapeutic candidate that incorporates site-specific homogeneous drug conjugation onto a bispecific antibody for the treatment of solid tumors is another demonstration of the versatility of our technology platform," said Trevor Hallam, PhD, Sutro’s Chief Scientific Officer.
Under the terms of the agreement announced in 2014, Sutro and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany have collaborated to discover and develop ADCs utilizing Sutro’s cell-free protein synthesis platform, Xpress CF+. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany will be responsible for drug product, clinical development and commercialization of any resulting products. Sutro is eligible to receive certain pre-commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties ranging from low-to-mid single digit percentages, along with certain additional one-time royalties, on worldwide sales of any commercial products. Further financial details are not being disclosed.