Nerviano Medical Sciences S.r.l. (NMS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company within the NMS group, recently announced a licensing agreement with Italfarmaco S.p.A. (ITF), a specialty pharmaceutical company, to collaborate on the development and commercialization of an innovative peptide-drug conjugate (PDC).

Under the agreement, ITF will utilize NMS's proprietary linker-payload technology to advance a novel PDC product candidate. NMS has established Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing and supply of the linker-payload at a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) recommended by NMS. ITF will oversee the generation of the target peptide and manage all non-clinical, clinical, and commercialization activities related to any resulting proprietary product candidates. The financial details of the agreement have not been disclosed.

Dr. Christian Steinkühler, Chief Scientific Officer of Italfarmaco Group, expressed enthusiasm about leveraging NMS's advanced linker-payload technology to develop new peptide-drug conjugates tailored for the treatment of oncology indications with significant unmet medical needs. This collaboration marks a pivotal step in Italfarmaco's mission to build a diverse pipeline of innovative medicines.

Hugues Dolgos, PharmD, CEO of NMS and NMS Group, noted the significance of ITF, a company with a rich heritage in pharmaceutical and chemical sectors, choosing their linker-payload platform for developing a truly innovative peptide-drug conjugate. Dolgos sees this as a substantial advancement in expanding the application of their technology.

NMS specializes in the discovery and development of innovative cancer therapies based on proprietary kinase and linker-payload platforms. The company has licensed approved targeted drugs to pharmaceutical companies, and its proprietary small molecule candidate drugs are currently undergoing clinical studies. The collaboration with ITF will leverage NMS's linker-payload platform technology alongside ITF’s peptide-based oncology therapeutics technology. This strategic partnership aims to exploit NMS's technology in conjunction with peptides, producing more stable, efficacious, and safer drug conjugates for the treatment of diverse and chemotherapy-resistant solid tumors.

NMS's licensed linker-payload, known for its optimized features and sub-nanomolar antiproliferative activity across various tumor cell lines, is expected to provide greater potency than existing alternatives in chemo-resistant cell lines expressing the MDR system. The linker payload, when combined with targeting moieties, exhibits an excellent therapeutic window, high activity in heterogeneous tumors due to the bystander effect, promotes immune system recognition of tumor cells for inducing immunogenic cell death, and demonstrates efficacy in chemotherapy-resistant and poorly proliferating tumors.

 

Source: businesswire.com

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