Alentis Therapeutics and PinotBio have entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement to develop claudin-1-targeting antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for oncology indications.
Under the agreement, Alentis has secured an exclusive option to in-license linkers and payloads from PinotBio for use in its pipeline candidates.
Financially, PinotBio will receive an upfront payment alongside eligibility for development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments.
Alentis will also pay royalties on net sales for any therapy candidate it chooses to commercialise.
The partnership aims to apply PinotBio’s platform technologies to Alentis’ antibody assets to address claudin-1, a target expressed across more than ten tumour types.
Alentis Therapeutics CEO Dr Mark Pruzanski said: “Claudin-1 continues to gain recognition as a highly promising target and, together with our partner PinotBio, we aim to further expand its therapeutic potential and maximise patient benefit across a range of high-unmet need cancers.
“This expanded relationship builds on our successful research collaboration, during which we explored dozens of ADC constructs and saw firsthand the strength of PinotBio’s science and execution.”
Alentis is currently assessing two clinical-stage oncology conjugates in Phase I/II trials across solid tumours expressing claudin-1: ALE.P02, which carries a tubulin inhibitor payload, and ALE.P03, which uses a topoisomerase I inhibitor payload.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast track designation to ALE.P02 for advanced or metastatic claudin-1-positive squamous tumours.
Additionally, Alentis is evaluating lixudebart in a Phase Ib trial for advanced liver fibrosis and a Phase II study in anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis with renal involvement.
The company has partnered with Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) to co-develop and co-promote the antibody for conditions including associated vasculitis with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (AAV-RPGN), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
Alentis was founded on research conducted in France at the University of Strasbourg and Inserm.
Headquartered in South Korea and founded in 2017, PinotBio focuses on therapies for recurrent and resistant disease. Four programmes currently use its PINOT-ADC platform: CT-P70, CT-P71, CT-P73, and PBX-004.
The three partnered candidates being developed with Celltrion have received US FDA Fast Track designation, whilst PBX-004 remains wholly owned. PinotBio’s institutional backers include IMM Investment and KB Investment.
