Purple Biotech & Mor Research Applications Announce Research Collaboration to Identify Promising Investigational Oncology Treatments

Purple  Biotech Ltd. recently announced a research collaboration with Mor Research Applications that provides Purple Biotech first access to early stage oncology product candidates owned by Mor. Under this agreement, the Company will have the option to fund early development aiming both to in-license selected drug assets and to pursue their development and commercialization.

Clalit is Israel’s largest Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), covering approximately half the population of Israel (52%). Clalit serves approximately 4.8 million members and operates 14 hospitals. The research conducted at these hospitals is now potentially available to Purple Biotech for in-licensing and clinical development.

“To grow our pipeline of therapeutic assets, our focus at Purple Biotech is to identify unique, first-in-class oncology assets and technologies and bring them into clinical development,” said Gil Efron, CEO of Purple Biotech. “This research collaboration with Mor will provide us access to numerous early-stage assets that have been developed by leading researchers and scientists in Israel. We are excited at the prospect of being able to select from among these innovative assets the ones we wish to in-license for clinical and commercial development. This collaboration leverages our expertise in cancer drug development and accelerates our vision of bringing first-in-class treatments to cancer patients worldwide.”

Under this partnership, Purple Biotech has first right to review Mor’s pool of early stage research projects and to select those that it wishes to explore in early development prior to in-licensing, which will carry worldwide exclusivity.

“We look forward to collaborating with Purple Biotech as a partner that can bring our high-value, first-in-class assets forward through further development,” said Shay Marcus, Mor Research Application’s CEO. “Purple Biotech has demonstrated a commitment to pursuing breakthrough oncology treatments that have the potential to replace the standard-of-care for some of the most debilitating and intractable cancers. It is our hope that this collaboration will be the path to allow our cutting-edge research to become a therapeutic reality for cancer patients.”

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a clinical-stage company developing first-in-class therapies that seek to overcome tumor immune evasion and drug resistance. The Company’s oncology pipeline includes NT219 and CM24. NT219 is a dual inhibitor, novel small molecule that simultaneously targets IRS1/2 and STAT3. In a Phase 1/2 study of NT219, the Company is currently advancing it in a dose escalation as a monotherapy treatment of solid tumors, and in a dose escalation in combination with cetuximab for the treatment of recurrent and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) or colorectal adenocarcinoma. These studies will be followed by an expansion phase of NT219 at its recommended Phase 2 level in combination with cetuximab in patients with recurrent and metastatic SCCHN. CM24 is a humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks CEACAM1, an immune checkpoint protein that supports tumor immune evasion survival through multiple pathways. The company is advancing CM24 as a combination therapy with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors in a Phase 2 study for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The company has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb for the Phase 1/2 clinical trials to evaluate the combination of CM24 with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab in addition to chemotherapy. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Rehovot, Israel. For more information, visit  https://purple-biotech.com/.

Mor Research Applications is the technology transfer company of Clalit Healthcare Services, the largest HMO in Israel, providing end-to-end technology transfer services. Mor helps inventors translate new ideas in the medical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, medical IT, and biotechnology areas into products and solutions that benefit healthcare providers and patients. Mor’s commercialization portfolio includes over 100 different projects and companies at various stages of development, from pre-seed to advanced stage companies. The intellectual property is conceived and developed by professionals working at all 14 hospitals owned by Clalit, and around 1600 clinics across Israel. Mor draws on over two decades of experience to ensure that the process of commercialization of these inventions yields gains for the researchers, industry partners, and the public at large. The main role of Mor Research Applications is to capture innovation through its invention disclosure process, evaluate whether the invention has market and patent protection value, secure patent protection, secure licensing agreements or establish spin-offs for further development. In addition to the IP department, Mor serves Clalit’s employees through its research fund division, which currently handles over one thousand funds for Clalit doctors and researchers. Mor was founded in 1994 as a subsidiary of The Mor Institute and is a holding of Clalit Health Services.