Oxford BioTherapeutics & Boehringer Ingelheim Agree on 2-Year Extension to their Second Multi-Year Collaboration in Cancer Immunology

Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd. (OBT) recently announced it has extended its second multi-year collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim for an additional 2 years. With this extension, further programs will be added into the existing collaboration, with the goal to enable the development of novel cancer immunotherapies in areas of high unmet patient need.

The two partnerships between OBT and Boehringer Ingelheim were initiated in April 2013 and October 2020. They are both focused on the discovery of novel tumor targets enabled by OBT’s proprietary OGAP discovery platform for Boehringer Ingelheim’s unique immuno-oncology and ADC platforms, contributing to the company’s aspiration of transforming the lives of people living with cancer with the ultimate goal of curing a range of cancers.

Christian Rohlff, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford BioTherapeutics, said “Last month marked the 10-year anniversary of our partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim and it is fitting to mark this anniversary by extending our collaboration both in time and in value. Over the past decade, we have built a successful relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim’s cancer research, now in its third phase, through high-quality outputs enabled by our proprietary OGAP discovery platform. Since 2013, the company has selected three targets discovered using OGAP, of which two programs have led to therapeutic assets in Phase 1 clinical development. We look forward to the next phase of our highly successful partnership and to continuing to work together to develop innovative first-in-class treatments for patients with difficult to treat cancers.”

A major differentiator between OBT’s discovery platform and other approaches is the retention of the link between individual patient samples through to the design of therapeutic antibodies and diagnostic patient selection tools, which increases the overall success rate of these novel compounds transitioning into clinical development.

Under the terms of the extended agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim is responsible for the development and commercialization of treatment candidates that interact with the novel targets identified by OGAP. OBT will receive research funding as well as success-based development and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on potential future product sales.

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) is a clinical-stage oncology company based in Oxford (UK) and San Jose (US); with a pipeline of first-in-class immuno-oncology (IO) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) based therapies designed to fulfil major unmet patient needs in cancer therapeutics. These include bispecific, Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T), Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) and Antibody Dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC) therapeutics.

OBT’s first clinical program, OBT076, initiated expansion in a US Clinical Trial in 2021 in patients with advanced or refractory solid tumors, including gastric, bladder, ovarian and lung cancer, where CD205 is overexpressed. Infiltration of tumors by immunosuppressive cells correlates with adverse outcomes (lower progression free and overall survival), suggesting that this process contributes to the progression of several cancers.

OBT’s proprietary OGAP target discovery platform is based on one of the world’s largest proprietary cancer membrane proteomic databases, with data on over 5,000 cancer cell proteins providing unique, highly qualified oncology targets, of which three programs are in clinical development in the US and Europe. OBT’s IO discovery process provides unique insights into the cancer-immune cell synapse and has identified several novel IO monoclonal and bispecific antibody candidates for cancer therapies.

OBT’s pipeline and development capabilities have been validated through multiple strategic partnerships including with Boehringer Ingelheim, ImmunoGen, Genmab, Agenus and our cell therapy research collaboration with Kite Pharma as well as other world leaders in antibody development (such as Amgen, WuXi, Medarex (BMS), Alere (Abbott) and BioWa). OBT has a strong oncology focused management team and board with significant experience in developing IO and antibody-based therapies. For more information, visit www.oxfordbiotherapeutics.com.