OXFORD, United Kingdom and SAN JOSE, Calif. and SHANGHAI, China, Jan. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WuXi Biologics (“WuXi Bio”) (2269.HK), a global company with leading open-access biologics technology platforms, and Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd. (“OBT”), a clinical stage oncology company with a pipeline of immuno-oncology and antibody-drug conjugate based therapies, today announced that OBT has selected a second bispecific program that will combine an anti-PD-L1 antibody with OBT’s immuno-oncology (IO) candidate, OX003. OBT will research and develop OX003/PD-L1, which employs WuXi Biologics’ proprietary bispecific antibody platform WuXiBody®.
“We are pleased to extend our IO partnership with WuXi Biologics, by combining a second bispecific antibody from WuXi Biologics’ proprietary bispecific platform with one of our leading clinical IO assets, OX003,” said Dr. Christian Rohlff, CEO of Oxford BioTherapeutics. “This designation represents the second advancement of our immuno-oncology partnership with WuXi Biologics, in which we will research, develop and commercialize five novel bispecific antibodies for the treatment of several cancer types. Combining the potent immune stimulatory activity of OX003 with the ability to block PD-L1 in a single agent, OX003/PD-L1 has the potential to achieve broad utility across many solid and liquid tumor types while simultaneously improving the risk/benefit ratio, reducing costs and maximizing future commercial potential. This product is the second molecule with WuXiBody® in our partnership, following the design of OX001/PD-L1, which is now entering pre-clinical development.”
“We are glad that significant progress has been made from our strategic partnership with OBT, one of the earlier adopters of our proprietary WuXiBody® platform,” said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics. “Globally the first WuXiBody® based bispecific is in a phase I clinical trial. Broad applications of this innovative non-specific platform further validate our beliefs that this platform addresses most technical limitations of current bispecific technologies and has the potential to tremendously expedite bispecific development and reduce the cost of making these biologics. WuXi Biologics will continue to invest in developing next-generation technologies to transform biologics discovery, development and manufacturing.”
About OX003R
OX003R is a unique immuno-modulatory receptor discovered by OBT to be highly expressed in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) of ten different solid tumor types and in activated T cells. OBT has developed anti-OX003 as a humanized first-in-class antibody directed against the human extracellular domain of OX003R antigen. It shows a strong agonistic effect on activated CD8+ T cells promoting their proliferation, cytokine secretion, and cytolytic ability, and suppresses Treg function. The antitumor activity of OX003 is demonstrated by enhancement of cytotoxicity of tumor cells (including HCT116, MDA-MB-231, and BT474). OBT plans to investigate the safety, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of OX003 antibody therapy as a single agent in a Phase I clinical study in patients across a range of solid tumors, especially in human cancers that show the presence of TILs, including small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer.
About WuXiBody®
WuXiBody® is a leading proprietary bispecific antibody platform developed by WuXi Biologics. It can effectively break through the CMC barriers for many bispecific antibodies development with high expression yield, high stability, good solubility, and easy purification to homogeneity, expedite the process by 6-18 months and significantly reduce manufacturing costs, a limitation still faced by many other current bispecific platforms. WuXiBody® Platform enables almost any mAb sequence pairs to be assembled into bispecific constructs, which are expected to have low immunogenicity risk and longer in vivo half-life. WuXiBody® Platform also has a unique structural flexibility, which makes it convenient to build various formats with different combination of valencies (1+1, 1+2, 2+2) to meet the requirements of different target biologies.
About Oxford BioTherapeutics
Oxford BioTherapeutics is a clinical stage oncology company; based in Oxford, UK; Morristown, New Jersey and San Jose, California, USA; with a pipeline of first-in-class immuno-oncology (IO) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-based therapies identified using OBT’s proprietary OGAP® target discovery platform. OBT’s approach aims to fulfil major unmet patient needs by targeting difficult-to-treat cancers. For more information on Oxford BioTherapeutics, please visit www.oxfordbiotherapeutics.com.
About WuXi Biologics
WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is a leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop, and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. The company’s history and achievements demonstrate its commitment to providing a truly one-stop service offering and strong value proposition to its global clients. As of June 30, 2020, there were a total of 286 integrated projects, including 141 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 125 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 19 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and one project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity for biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, the U.S., Germany, and Singapore exceeding 300,000 liters after 2023, WuXi Biologics will provide its biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information about WuXi Biologics, please visit: www.wuxibiologics.com.
Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd.
Investors:
Christian Rohlff
CEO, Oxford BioTherapeutics
44 (0) 1235 861770
christian.r@oxfordbiotherapeutics.com
Media:
Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D.
212-213-0006, ext. 315 / 364
rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com
WuXi Biologics
Media
PR@wuxibiologics.com
Investor
IR@wuxibiologics.com
