ADC Therapeutics licenses proprietary antibodies from Five Prime

ADC Therapeutics and Five Prime Therapeutics have announced an exclusive license agreement for human antibodies directed to an undisclosed target expressed on the surface of various types of cancers.

Under the terms of the agreement, ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) will initiate preclinical research and development of ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates) using antibodies licensed from Five Prime. ADC Therapeutics' platform combines mAbs (monoclonal antibodies) specific to particular types of tumor cells with a novel class of highly potent pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD)-based chemistries.

Five Prime spokeswoman Amy Kendall told BioPharma-Reporter.com, “Five Prime is eligible to receive payments from ADCT, including license fees, milestone payments related to development, regulatory, and commercial events, and royalties on net sales.  At this time, ADCT has licensed rights from Five Prime for all countries of the world except the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.”

She added that Five Prime selected ADCT “because we were very impressed with the ADCT antibody drug conjugate technology and its potential match with Five Prime’s human antibodies.”

According to the companies, ADC Therapeutics' PBD-based chemistries do not distort the structure of the DNA they give the prospect of highly potent, target-selective cancer therapies with fewer side effects and the potential to pre-empt resistance issues faced by other anti-cancer products on the market.

"ADC Therapeutics is a leader in developing proprietary antibody-drug conjugates targeting major cancers such as breast, lung, prostate, renal and blood," said Lewis Williams, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of Five Prime. "We believe that antibodies directed toward this protein target, which is found on a variety of tumor types, will be most efficacious when armed with a cytotoxic drug conjugate. This strategic license allows us to progress a program by leveraging Five Prime's strength in the development of novel biologic products and ADCT's complementary strength in arming antibodies for use in treating cancer."

Financial terms of the partnership are confidential.