Morphotek, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., announced that it licensed its eribulin-linker payload to Bliss Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (BlissBio) of China. The licensing agreement grants BlissBio the exclusive right to use the eribulin-linker payload to develop a therapeutic ADC against an undisclosed oncology target for the China market.
The licensing agreement includes an upfront payment, milestones and sales royalty payments, which are undisclosed. BlissBio has an exclusivity option to expand the territory beyond China to the global market and to develop therapeutic ADCs to two additional undisclosed oncology targets.
Morphotek’s ADC Services offer third parties the opportunity to license the proprietary eribulin-linker payload to develop investigational ADCs using either Morphotek’s REsidue-SPEcific Conjugation Technology (RESPECT) or an alternative approach to conjugation. The eribulin-linker payload consists of a cytotoxic agent, eribulin, modified by a chemical linker to facilitate optimal conjugation. Eribulin’s anti-tumor activity is mediated by the inhibition of microtubule elongation and mitotic spindle formation, resulting in apoptosis. Eribulin mesylate, marketed as Halaven, is approved in the US for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer who have previously received at least two chemotherapeutic regimens for metastatic disease, including an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting.
Our end-to-end ADC Services provide multiple entry points for clients, starting from development of an antigen site-specific bioconjugate-ready monoclonal antibody and ADC through in vivo safety and efficacy validation. Additional options include manufacture of GMP clinical trial material, GLP toxicology studies and development of immunohistochemistry (IHC) companion diagnostics for patient screening.
Morphotek, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel classes of biological-based products to treat cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
Bliss Biopharmaceutical (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovery, development and commercialization of biotherapeutics for unmet medical needs.