Our Life Sciences team has advised Oxford BioTherapeutics on a multi-year collaboration with ImmunoGen, Inc. to advance the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer.
The collaboration will see Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) research and develop novel ADCs with ImmunoGen, a leader in the field of ADCs for cancer treatments. Under the agreement, the companies will use ImmunoGen's linker-payload technology directed to novel targets identified via OBT's proprietary OGAP® discovery platform. The companies will support the collaboration through joint funding and with OBT receiving an upfront payment from ImmunoGen. Each party will be eligible to receive milestone payments and tiered royalties in respect of each programme selected by the other party for further development.
Gowling WLG's head of life sciences in the UK, Patrick Duxbury, led on the deal together with legal director Mathilda Davidson. They worked closely with Lindsey Hudson, director of BD and alliance management at OBT.
Patrick Duxbury said: "This new partnership for our client will significantly advance its work in developing ADC-based therapies and will, ultimately, condense the lead time towards making new potential treatments available to cancer patients. Having worked closely with the in-house team at OBT in the past, we were excited to join together again and on such a strategically important deal."
Oxford BioTherapeutics is a clinical stage oncology company based in Oxford in the UK, San José in California and Morristown in New Jersey USA. It has a pipeline of clinical and pre-clinical immuno-oncology ADC-based therapies and works with key innovators in oncology such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Kite, a Gilead company.
Ropes & Gray, Boston, advised the Massachusetts-based biotechnology company ImmunoGen on this new collaboration.
With more than 150 professionals in its global Life Sciences Group, Gowling WLG has the technical understanding required to advise on the unique challenges companies face throughout their life cycles. They work with business, intellectual property, human resource and regulatory teams to provide guidance and support in key areas of life sciences.