$1.1 billion partnership Sanofi and Biond to develop ILT2 antibody inhibitors

On January 12th Biond, which develops a platform for cancer immunotherapy, announced that it had entered into a global exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi (SNY) to develop and commercialize BND-22.
BND-22 is a humanized IgG4, an antibody antagonist that targets immunoglobulin-like transcription 2 (ILT2) receptors and can be used to treat solid tumors.
ILT2 is a member of the family of ILT immunomodulation mediators and is an inhibitory inhibitor expressed on congenital and adaptive immune cells, which binds to MHC Class I molecules, including HLA-G, an immunosuppressive protein expressed by multiple tumor types.
under the terms of the agreement, Biond will receive $125 million in cash advances and be entitled to more than $1 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as double-digit tiered royalties.
In the implementation process, Biond will lead the Ia clinical phase study of BND-22 to assess the safety and toacceability of BND-22 as a single drug, as well as its use in a joint use with approved cancer treatment drugs, and explore the potential link between BND-22 anti-tumor activity and selected tumor and blood biomarkers.
, Sanofi will assume responsibility for clinical development and commercialization.
previous preclinical studies have shown that BND-22 activates natural killer cells (NK) and CD8-plus lymphocytes by targeting the "don't eat me" signal mediated by ILT2 in macrophages, with a wide range of anti-tumor effects.
BND-22's application for a new drug (IND) has recently been submitted to the FDA and plans to begin a phase of the study in mid-2021 to assess BND-22's safety, tolerance and initial anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced cancer.
so far, the development of cancer immunotherapy has focused on drugs that stimulate the adaptive immune system to attack malignant cells, especially T lymphocytes.
, however, the strategy is flawed in the fact that many patients with advanced cancer do not benefit from these drugs for long.
and BND-22 as a new type of immunotherapy, both for adaptive immune cells, but also for congenital immune cells, and not only the use of T cells, but also the use of other immune cells (such as NK cells) and macrophages anti-tumor activity.
Biond Biologics is a drug discovery and development company dedicated to developing innovative therapies for new oncology goals by identifying immunomodulation pathways and achieving in-cell delivery of biologics.
Biond's product line is based on in-house research into newly discovered immune checkpoints and immune escape mechanisms, and leading development programs include BND-22 ( a multicellular checkpoint inhibitor targeting ILT2) and BION-206 (a new drug that overcomes PD-1 blocking resistance by targeting soluble CD28).
addition to its line of immunotherapy drugs, Biond has developed Inspire, an innovative technology platform that delivers biological agents within cells.
INspire is based on a chemically modified carrier protein that can be coupled with protein therapies such as antibodies or enzymes and is designed to provide in-cellal coupled therapy, providing many of the key disease targets that are currently considered "unavailable."
source: Biond Biologics and Sanofi Enter into Global Licensing Agreement for BND-22, a Novel Immune Checkpoint Checkpoint Targeting ILT2 Receptor