PharmaMar in licence deal with Seattle Genetics

Under the deal, Seattle Genetics will get the exclusive worldwide rights to some proprietary sea-derived toxic payloads of PharmaMar for the development, manufacture and commercialisation of targeted drug conjugates. This month, Seattle Genetics widened its portfolio of molecules zeroing in on tumour targets by licencing Pieris Pharmaceuticals’ anticalin technology in a potential US$1.2bn deal. Pieris today closed an underwritten public offering that increases the company’s assets by US$50.6m.

According to the contract with Seattle Genetics, PharmaMar will receive an upfront payment of US$5m and an undefined milestone payment when the product enters clinical development. In addition, PharmaMar is eligible for potential milestone payments for approval and achievement of revenue targets and royalties once a product receives regulatory approval and is marketed.

PharmaMar’s recently launched business division for payloads has already developed an tubulin inhibitor for Her2-targeting antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which impairs tubulin polymerisation, causing disorganisation of the microtubule network leading to mitotic failures and halting cell division in cells. However, according to the company there are further novel, structurally diverse molecules with novel mechanisms of action and nanomolar cytotoxicity under development for next-generation ADCs.

Currently the pipeline of PharmaMar includes the EU-marketed product Yondelis and three clinical including lurbinectedin, plitidepsin, PM184 and PM14.