MultiCell, Oxis Biotech to develop three new antibody-drug conjugates

The new ADC product candidates will be used by OXIS to treat triple-negative breast cancer, and multiple myeloma and associated osteolytic lesions which are significant unmet medical needs.

As part of the deal, OXIS paid MCIT a license fee of $500,000, and will reimburse MCIT up to $1.125m in development costs for the three ADC product candidates.

Oxis will also pay about $12.75m in clinical development milestones, and was also granted an option to purchase manufacturing rights to the new ADCs upon payment of an additional $10m.

In addition, OXIS was also granted a worldwide exclusive license to sell the three ADCs, and will pay a royalty of 3% of net yearly sales.

According to MCIT, it retained all rights to its ADC platform for all therapeutic indications, and is free to pursue its own drug development programs and to partner with other interested pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms.

MultiCell Immunotherapeutics chairman and chief executive officer Gerald Newmin said: "We continue to explore therapeutic indications and drug combinations of interest to us, and will continue to aggressively seek partnerships with larger pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies who are interested in using our ADC technology to help facilitate the targeted delivery of their drugs."

MCIT’s ADC platform technology is based on multivalent, cleavable linkers that allow tethered drugs to be released intracellularly or extracellularly upon binding of the antibody to the target cell.

In addition, the MCIT linkers are designed to attach multiple drugs per targeting antibody, and to release the drugs in their original form without modification of the drug.