BioNova Pharmaceuticals has a couple molecules in early development for blood cancers, but, in an effort to get to the clinic faster, the biotech is doling out $200 million to Sutro Biopharma for some more advanced treatments.
The Shanghai biotech will pay an initial $4 million to license the San Francisco-based company's CD74-targeting antibody-drug conjugate for development and commercialization rights in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, according to an Oct. 12 statement. The pact could balloon to $200 million in biobucks.
Sutro retains rights outside of greater China and will receive double-digit royalties on sales if approved in the region.
Dubbed STRO-001, Sutro's treatment has been studied in phase 1 clinical trials in the U.S. for later stages of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including diffuse large B-cell, mantle cell and follicular lymphomas. The biotech is finalizing dosing in a dose-escalation trial, said Arturo Molina, M.D., Sutro's chief medical officer, in a statement.
BioNova will work quickly to develop STRO-001 in greater China for phase 2 expansion studies in multiple hematologic malignancies, which are cancers that impact the blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes, said BioNova CEO Ye Hua, M.D. The pact will see STRO-001 applied to earlier stages of disease in non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma and leukemia.
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The deal builds on to BioNova's pipeline in that disease area, the CEO added. The biotech has two small molecules in the discovery stages for hematologic conditions.
Outside that area, BioNova and Kadmon are working on a midstage graft-versus-host disease treatment, and the biotech linked arms with Carna Biosciences on a preclinical B-cell cancer asset in March 2020.