Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd. has received a milestone payment from Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) under the companies’ alliance for the discovery of novel cancer antibody therapeutic targets using OBT’s OGAP target discovery platform. In addition to OBT’s two clinical stage assets, MEN1309/OBT076 and MEN1112/OBT357, the BI drug candidate is one of several immuno-oncology programs leveraging the OGAP target discovery platform.

“OBT’s platforms are designed to discover novel therapeutic targets and engineer antibody constructs to those targets, including bi-specific, antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) therapeutics to best address difficult-to-treat cancers,” said OBT’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Christian Rohlff. “We believe that the advancement of the BI compound directed to an oncology target identified by us, along with our two clinical-stage assets and pharmaceutical partnerships, further validates our approach. We look forward to continued advancement of our partnered and in-house programs, including our most advanced asset, OBT076, a CD205 targeting antibody, for which we expect initiation of clinical development in the U.S. by mid-2019 for patients with high risk breast cancer and other solid tumors.”

Under the terms of the agreement, BI is responsible for the development and commercialization of antibody products to the discovered targets. OBT will continue to receive development and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on any future product sales. To date, BI has exercised two options under the agreement.