Royalty Report: Drugs, Drug Discovery, Vaccine – Collection: 297935

License Grant

Licensee has exclusively licensed the Xpress CF technology for the vaccine field from Licensor, who has industrialized and scaled the platform at its GMP facility.

Under a license from Licensor, Licensee has right to use the XpressCF® and XpressCF+™ platforms to discover and develop vaccine candidates for the treatment or prophylaxis of infectious diseases.

License Property

Licensor retains the right to discover and develop vaccines for treatment or prophylaxis of any disease not caused by an infectious pathogen, including cancer.

XpressCF® – integrated cell-free protein synthesis platform

XpressCF+â„¢ –  site-specific conjugation platform

Both of these platforms allow to rapidly and precisely create optimally designed, next-generation protein therapeutics candidates.

The platform represents a major advancement over conventional conjugate vaccine production methods, by enabling precise and consistent conjugation of antigens to site-specific locations on a protein carrier that do not impede T-cell help resulting in higher-potency conjugates.

Field of Use

XpressCF® and XpressCF+â„¢ technology platforms  led to the discovery of STRO-001 and STRO-002, Licensor’s first two internally-developed ADCs. STRO-001 is a CD74-targeting ADC currently being investigated in a Phase I clinical trial of patients with advanced B-cell malignancies, including multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

License Grant

Under this license, Licensee received an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sublicenseable license under Licensor’s patents and know-how relating to cell-free expression of proteins to (i) research, develop, use, sell, offer for sale, export, import and otherwise exploit specified vaccine compositions, such rights being sublicensable, for the treatment or prophylaxis of infectious diseases, excluding cancer vaccines, and (ii) manufacture, or have manufactured by an approved contract manufacturing organization, such vaccine compositions from extracts supplied by Licensor pursuant to the Licensor Supply Agreement.  Licensee is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize the vaccine compositions.

License Property

The vaccine compositions used the Licensors proprietary cell-free protein expression technology, known as XpressCF which utilizes extracts derived from strains of E. Coli.

Licensor is a clinical stage, publicly-traded drug discovery, development and manufacturing company using precise protein engineering and rational design (enabled by Licensors proprietary XpressCF platform technology) to advance next-generation oncology therapeutics.

The primary invention underpinning the XpressCF platform was the creation of engineered E.coli-derived proprietary extracts containing fully functional oxidative phosphorylation machinery in inverted membrane vesicles and orthogonal tRNA capable of catalyzing nnAA incorporation. This innovation enables the Extract to regenerate high energy phosphates required for protein translation and nnAA incorporation, reducing production cost and permitting the use of industrial sized reaction vessels and longer manufacturing run times than previously thought possible. The XpressCF system routinely produces g/L of complex proteins in 8-10 hours and scales linearly from bench to large-scale GMP production. The protein of interest is produced at high yield and the absence of cellular debris combine to simplify downstream purification, further enhancing production efficiency.

Field of Use

The XpressCF platform is used in the field of vaccines to address infectious diseases in both human and animal use.

XpressCFâ„¢, an industrialized cell-free protein synthesis platform, for the vaccine field allowing (1) site-specific conjugation; (2) production of complex antigens in more optimal conformation; and (3) speed, flexibility and scalability of the discovery engine.

The XpressCF platform overcomes these significant limitations by separating the precise cellular machinery required for transcription, translation, and energy production into an E.coli-derived mixture, or Extract capable of continuous oxidative phosphorylation.

Licensee is a next-generation vaccine company whose cell-free protein synthesis platform enables the design and production of optimized protein carriers and antigens, the critical building blocks of vaccines.

License Grant

The parties partnered to jointly develop and commercialize three of Licensor’s early-stage investigational bispecific antibody product candidates and enter into a discovery research collaboration for future differentiated antibody therapeutics for cancer.

License Property

Epcoritamab (DuoBody-CD3xCD20) is a bispecific antibody created using Licensor’s proprietary DuoBody technology. Epcoritamab is designed to target CD3, which is expressed on T cells and is part of the T cell receptor signaling complex, and CD20, a clinically well validated therapeutic target. CD20 is expressed on a majority of B cell malignancies, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). In a number of laboratory models, epcoritamab has shown highly effective killing of CD20+ tumors and induced potent tumor cell lysis across a panel of B cell tumor lines. Epcoritamab is currently evaluated in a Phase 1/2 study for multiple hematological B cell malignancies.

The companies will partner to develop Licensor’s next-generation bispecific antibody programs, epcoritamab (DuoBody®-CD3xCD20), DuoHexaBody®-CD37 and DuoBody-CD3x5T4. The collaboration combines Licensor’s world-class discovery and development engine and next-generation bispecific antibody therapeutic candidates with Licensee’s deep clinical expertise, innovative antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform and global commercial leadership in hematological cancers. Licensor’s DuoBody-CD3 technology engages and directs cytotoxic T cells selectively to tumors to elicit an immune response towards malignant tumor cells. Licensee’s ADC technology allows the delivery of a therapeutic toxin directly to cancer cells while sparing normal, healthy cells, providing for a more targeted, less toxic treatment approach.

Licensor is a biotechnology company specializing in the creation and development of differentiated antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Licensors technology base consists of validated and proprietary next generation antibody technologies – the DuoBody® platform for generation of bispecific antibodies, the HexaBody® platform, which creates effector function enhanced antibodies, the HexElect® platform, which combines two co-dependently acting HexaBody molecules to introduce selectivity while maximizing therapeutic potency and the DuoHexaBody® platform, which enhances the potential potency of bispecific antibodies through hexamerization.

Field of Use

The field of use is for the treatment of cancer utilizing antibodies. Bispecific antibodies (also known as dual-targeting molecules) bind to two different epitopes, either on the same or on different targets. This may improve the antibodies’ specificity and efficacy in inactivating the disease target cells.

Licensee has a clinical expertise, innovative antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform and global commercial leadership in hematological cancers.

License Grant

Under the Collobaration Agreement, Licensor will make the Ii-Key Peptide vaccine technology available to the Chinese Licensees. The Chinese parties will provide facilities and personnel for the development of the COVID-19 vaccine under Licensor technical guidance. The development will include synthesis, analysis and human trials through Phase III, if warranted, in China. The Chinese parties will have exclusive rights to use and commercialize the COVID-19 technology and products in China.

License Property

The licensed property is Ii-Key Peptide vaccine technology.  Ii-Key is a technology that activates the immune response for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.

Field of Use

The field of use is to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.  The COVID-19 pandemic has opened significant opportunities to resurrect infectious disease vaccine platform Ii-Key Peptide vaccine technology.  COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Licensee is an affiliate of the China Technology Exchange, and is enabling the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in China.

License Grant

With this asset purchase agreement Buyer acquired an exclusive license with respect to Premas’ vaccine platform.

License Property

The sole asset consists of an exclusive license with respect to Premas’ vaccine platform for the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 and other coronavirus infections.

Premas vaccine platform is certain patent applications, know-how and other proprietary information related to a vaccine platform that involves genetically engineered and modified yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which along with certain proprietary expression vectors and optimized genes developed to be used with the above strain, and, has been shown to be useful in the expression of more than thirty type 1 endoplasmic reticulum associated proteins.

Field of Use

The field of use is infection and disease.  The Field of the Premas’ vaccine platform shall encompass the vaccination against, and prevention, treatment, and management, of COVID-2019 and any mutations thereof, and any other novel corona virus and any mutations thereof.  COVID-19, new Corona Virus has three major antigens or immunogens which are type 1 endoplasmic reticulum associated proteins, primarily the “S” spike protein, “E” Envelope protein and “M”, membrane protein.

License Grant

University granted to the Company an exclusive license for certain inventions and technologies related to nanoparticles useful as vaccines.

License Property

The University has developed certain inventions and technology related to nanoparticles.

The Inventions and Technologies licensed relate to the ABBIE patent estate that includes patent families.  One such family is titled “Novel Nanoparticle–Based Vaccine Targeting Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTA) and its’ Use in Solid and Hematological Malignancies”.  The use and methods for a vaccine composition comprising of particles comprising nanoparticles, microparticles or a mixture thereof.

ABBIE is a non-viral gene editing mechanism to insert the target DNA template information into the T cell genome at a precise, predetermined locus. ABBIE allows the creation of the plasmid (“glue”) that goes through the membrane to the nucleus and inserts the genome template into the T cells so that they could express the CAR T protein and possibly other accessory proteins while possibly eliminating unwanted inhibitory proteins.

Field of Use

Licensee is a target discovery and gene editing company utilizing artificial intelligence and their proprietary neural network platform with a therapeutic focus on immuno-oncology.

The license granted is for the inventions and technologies for the use of oral vaccines for any diseases, including, without limitation, any form of cancer.

License Grant

Licensor, a non-profit cancer treatment and research institution, grants an exclusive, worldwide right and license, including the right to sublicense, to the Biological Materials and the Licensor Program Patents and interest in Joint Program Patents to discover, develop, make, have made, use, sell, have sold, offer for sale and import Collaboration Materials and Licensed Products and to practice Licensed Processes.

Licensor grants a nonexclusive research and development license for Licensee to practice the use of Licensor' s cancer vaccines identified in the Licensor Patents and the antigens which they contain, to the extent that Licensor has a Valid Claim on any antigens included in any or all vaccines.

License Property

Licensor has been engaged in research efforts focused on the development of conjugated tumor antigens as cancer vaccines.  Licensor plans to conduct human clinical trials on such cancer vaccines which are expected to generate antisera against tumor antigens.

Biological Material shall mean human blood and lymphocytes obtained from patients enrolled in the Participating Licensor Clinical Trials.

The patents include
Ganglioside-KLH Conjugate Vaccines Plus QS21;
Synthesis of glycoconjugates of the globo-h epitope and uses thereof;
Synthesis Of The Breast Tumor-Associated Antigen Defined By Monoclonal Antibody MBR-1 And Uses Thereof;
Polyvalent Conjugate Vaccine for Cancer; and,
Optimal Polyvalent Vaccine for Cancer.

Field of Use

Licensee has expertise in the discovery, development and production of monoclonal antibodies using the lymphocytes of naturally exposed or vaccinated donors.