Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. and Glycotope GmbH have signed an option agreement for future strategic collaboration and licensing to develop an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) by combining Daiichi’s ADC technology with Glycotope’s investigational tumor-associated TA-MUC1 antibody PankoMab-GEX.

Once a feasibility study has been successfully completed, Daiichi has the right to exercise its option for worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize PankoMab-GEX ADC. If exercised, Glycotope will receive an upfront payment as well as development and sales milestones and royalties. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

“This strategic partnership is part of our overall strategy to maximize the potential of our ADC technology by seeking partnerships where our proprietary linker and payload as well as our unique protein engineering capabilities can be applied to new antibodies and targets,” said Tom Held, vice president, global head, Antibody Drug Conjugate Task Force, Daiichi Sankyo. “We look forward to working with Glycotope to combine our scientific expertise to develop a new ADC that can deliver smart chemotherapy to cancer cells.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to enter into this collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo, which without doubt adds great value to our glycoepitope-targeting program as well as the oncological pipeline,” added Henner Kollenberg, Managing Director, Glycotope.  

ADCs are a type of targeted cancer medicine that deliver cytotoxic chemotherapy to cancer cells via a linker attached to a monoclonal antibody that binds to a specific target expressed on cancer cells. Daiichi’s ADC technology is designed to deliver enhanced cancer cell destruction upon release inside the cell and reduce systemic exposure. PankoMab-GEX is an investigational monoclonal antibody that enables tumor-specific binding to a novel carbohydrate-induced conformational epitope, the TA-MUC1, which is extensively expressed in many tumor types including ovarian, lung and breast.