默克与Sutro共同开发新型抗体药物偶联疗法

默克与Sutro共同开发新型抗体药物偶联疗法

                               
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发布日期：2014-09-18  来源：生物谷

最近位于旧金山的生物技术公司Sutro公司透露公司已经与德国重量级制药公司默克公司达成协议，共同开发用于治疗癌症的抗体-药物偶联疗法（ADC）。

                               
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最近位于旧金山的生物技术公司Sutro公司透露公司已经与德国重量级制药公司默克公司达成协议，共同开发用于治疗癌症的抗体-药物偶联疗法（ADC）。

根据协议，默克公司将投入总计3亿美元的投资和一些未特殊说明的技术支持。抗体-药物偶联疗法旨在将一些具有明显细胞毒性的药物成分与特异性抗体偶联在一起使其对癌症细胞具有良好的靶向性。

目前这一技术领域的先驱当属Seattle Genetics公司。Sutro公司希望能够进入这一领域开辟新一代的ADC疗法。而默克公司绝不是最先发现Sutro公司这个"千里马"的伯乐，此前Sutro公司就先后和Celgene、强生、赛诺菲等医药巨头签订合作协议并已经顺利进行了总额为2600万的融资，其中礼来等公司也在投资人之列。通过此次与默克公司的合作，Sutro公司将把公司现有员工人数扩展至65人。此外Sutro公司CEO Bill Newell还表示，公司现在正在考虑进行IPO的可行性。

如此多的制药巨头都争先恐后的与Sutro公司建立合作关系也从一个侧面反映出目前癌症治疗领域中一个热点--癌症的免疫治疗。Sutro公司表示将把ADC与检验点疗法如PD-1、PD-L1等通路相结合，从而达到更有效治疗多种癌症的目的。

而默克公司也希望借助这样的协议重振自己的雄风。近年来，默克公司一直在寻找类似的合作伙伴来促进自己的研究机构重组。几年前公司开发的治疗多发性硬化症药物失败直接促成了公司高层对本公司研究机构的改革措施，而就在不久之前，默克公司开发的癌症疫苗tecemotide正式宣告失败也暗示着默克公司距离涅盘尚有一段距离。

详细英文报道：

Sutro Biopharma has landed another marquee name for its list of development partners for antibody-drug conjugates. Merck KGaA, which has been struggling in the clinic for years, has signed on with the San Francisco-based biotech, offering a $300 million-plus package of milestones along with some unspecified research support.

ADCs have been pioneered by companies like Seattle Genetics ($SGEN), which have been linking cytotoxic agents with a targeting mechanism. And biotechs like Sutro have been stepping in to offer some next-gen technology in the field.

One of the big attractions in this particular deal is that Sutro gets to "access some truly exciting tumor biology that Merck Serono has been working on for years," says Sutro CEO Bill Newell. That gives Sutro a better opportunity to devise the right antibody and payload to do the most effective work in fighting cancer.

Adding new partners has helped Sutro grow its roster of employees to 65 - a substantial figure for a private biotech. And Newell notes that the company has had a chance to balance out the equity investments it's received with non-dilutive cash from its partners to help fund operations. An IPO is being considered, he says, but with more than a year's worth of cash in the bank, Sutro is keeping its options open on just how it will raise more cash in the future.

Celgene ($CELG), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) and Sanofi ($SNY) have already signed on to work with Sutro. And the biotech's last round--a $26 million package late last year--brought in the likes of Amgen ($AMGN) and Eli Lilly ($LLY) along with Celgene, Alta and SV Life Sciences. The new round gave Sutro enough money to ramp up a fresh effort in one of the hottest fields in cancer R&D: immuno-oncology, specifically using the checkpoint strategy that stole the show at ASCO for the past two years running. Newell said at the time that the company plans to quickly whip up bispecific antibodies that can mix and match the PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint approach with other cancer targets.

Merck KGaA has been promising to do more deals like this, including some potential buyouts as it struggles to right a crooked course in R&D. It blundered into a disaster with an errant program for multiple sclerosis several years ago, which triggered a decision to reorganize its research group. Then the German company compounded its error by sticking, until recently, with its failed cancer vaccine tecemotide. That effort, partnered with oncothyreon ($ONTY), was abandoned just days ago after yet another clinical setback in Japan.

"We continue to explore opportunities that will allow us to better understand the potential ADCs have in directly targeting cancer cells," said Andree Blaukat, SVP and head of the translational innovation platform for oncology at Merck Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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