Andres McAllister to get his comments.
BioInvent is a biotechnology company that develops first in class-drugs for cancer therapy. The focus is on identifying new antibodies that can significantly improve the efficacy of current checkpoint inhibitors and/or achieve immune activation in patients who no longer respond to treatment.
The company's most advanced candidate is BI-1206 and in the pipeline there is also BI-1607, BI-1808, BT 001 and BI-1910. BI-1206 is being developed in two separate Phase I/IIa studies in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a form of blood cancer, and in solid tumors. A key part of the company's technology is the screening tool FIRST, which identifies both target structures and matching antibodies.
BioInvent attracts both investors and partners
BioInvent has attracted a lot of interest in recent years. This is especially clear when you look at the company's ownership base, where the largest owners are strong names such as Redmile, van Herk Investments, HBM, Forbion, Omega, Avanza Pension, Handelsbanken Funds and Nordnet Pension Insurance (as of 2022.12.31). BioInvent has also been at the forefront of concluding agreements – to date, the company has several ongoing collaborations, including with names such as Exelixis, MSD, Transgene. and ALMOSTBioInvent has also out-licensed drug candidates that are now in clinical development to companies such as Daiichi Sankyo, Bayer Healthcare, Mitsubishi Tanabe and Takeda.
Last week it was also announced that BioInvent has been selected as a partner for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Therapy Acceleration Program (LLS TAP), which will support the company's clinical development of BI-1206 in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as well as BI-1808 in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
LLS is an American non-profit organization active in research, patient support and education in blood cancer. The goal is to prevent and cure leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and Hodgkin's disease, and to improve the quality of life for those affected. Therefore, LLS funds research in blood cancer and supports drug development activities in the process towards market approval.
LLS TAP makes a strategic investment of 3 million USD
In connection with the collaboration, LLS TAP is making an investment in BioInvent of USD 3 million in newly issued shares. This is with the board's decision on a directed issue of 836 new shares, with a price tag of SEK 478 per share. The shares were expected to start trading on Nasdaq Stockholm around January 37,40, 23, and after the new issue, LLS TAP will own approximately 2023 percent of the shares in BioInvent.
Lore Gruenbaum, Vice President of LLS TAP, praised BioInvent in a comment on the recently initiated collaboration:
“The partnership demonstrates our commitment to supporting and accelerating the development of the most promising and innovative blood cancer treatments in the world. BioInvent, through a strong discovery platform, solid experience in therapeutic antibodies and a deep understanding of immuno-oncology, has created a broad and unique pipeline of promising therapies. We look forward to working with BioInvent to explore how these drug candidates can benefit blood cancer patients.”
BioInvent's CMO comments
BioStock exchanged a few words with the CMO Andres McAllister about the new collaboration.
Could you tell us a bit about the unmet medical need within the indications that BI-1206 and BI-1808 are being developed for?
- Despite recent advances in the treatment of some forms of Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (NHL), the great majority of the patients relapse after treatment, and relapses become ever more frequent and aggressive with time. Patients develop resistance to currently available treatments and few or no options remain available as the disease progresses. In that context, BioInvent is developing two important alternatives for the treatment of B and T cell lymphomas. The first, BI-1206, targets an important mechanism of resistance to rituximab, a great drug that revolutionized the treatment of B cell lymphomas and the backbone of current treatment regimens. Resistance to rituximab is developed with time and unfortunately sensitivity to the drug is progressively lost. BI-1206 has the potential of enhancing and recovering the activity of rituximab, by targeting an important mechanism of resistance to the drug, the overexpression by the tumor of FcgR2B, a receptor that modulates the activity of antibodies.
– The second drug, BI-1808 targets TNFR2, an important potential target present on tumor cells of T cell origin. In the case of T-cell lymphomas, the medical need is perhaps even greater since few treatment options exist, and the efficacy of the existing drugs is moderate, at best. The potential synergism with anti-PD1/PDL1 targeting agents could be a breakthrough for the treatment of these patients.
Having reached this agreement with LLS TAP – how will it affect BioInvent's ability to advance BI-1206 and BI-1808 through the different stages of clinical development and into the market?
– LLS has a demonstrated ability and impressive track record recognizing and supporting the best treatment candidates under development. LLS has supported the development of 70% of the drugs that have been approved in recent years for the treatment of these diseases. Their support has been instrumental in improving recruitment rates and motivating clinical investigators to participate in the clinical trials implemented to develop the new drug candidates. We expect this endorsement will be key to enhancing the recruitment of patients in our clinical studies. This is particularly important in the US, but it will also very likely have an impact in Europe. It is important to recognize that these diseases meet the qualification of orphan diseases, and in that regard, recruiting patients in these indications remains challenging.
How does BioInvent plan to leverage the expertise and resources of LLS to advance its research in the field of blood cancer?
- We are pursuing the discussions with the LLS leadership, and they are making their network available to BioInvent. It is a network of very highly accomplished investigators and key opinion leaders. Our aim is to develop a very active partnership with LLS.
How will this collaboration position BioInvent in the blood cancer treatment landscape?
- It will increase BioInvent's visibility in the field of Lymphoma and Leukemia, and LLS endorsement will help introduce the company and our approach to treating clinicians and investigators in the field.