Deck Pharma and Callithera Biosciences reached an exclusive global licensing agreement

A leading biopharmaceutical company dedicated to R&D and commercialization of innovative tumor therapies---Calithera Biosciences Co.
, Ltd.
and a clinical-stage biotechnology company--Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
, which focuses on the development of new small molecule drugs for the treatment of tumors and other life-threatening diseases Announced that the two companies have reached an exclusive license agreement for the global development and commercialization of a CD73 small molecule inhibitor, CB-708 (ATG-037)
.

According to the agreement, Calithera will receive a down payment and milestone payments based on development, registration and sales progress, and is eligible to receive tiered royalties within a dozen percentage points of the sales revenue of authorized products
.

CD73 can produce adenosine with a high degree of immunosuppressive effect, which enhances the proliferation of cancer cells by down-regulating IFN-γ and inhibiting the activity of NK cells and CD8+ T cells
.

According to the pre-clinical data published at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting and the 2019 Association for Tumor Immunotherapy (SITC) Annual Meeting, CB-708 single agent has immune-mediated activity in mouse syngeneic tumor models
.

Dr.
Mei Jianming, Founder and CEO of Deqi Pharmaceuticals, said: "With the rich experience of the Deqi Pharmaceuticals team in clinical development and commercialization in major markets around the world, we are very pleased to have the opportunity to advance the development of CB-708.
CB
-708 has Oral properties and high activity, it is a highly differentiated small molecule oral inhibitor of CD73 with best-in-class potential
.

Dr.
Susan Molineaux, President and CEO of Calithera, commented: “This cooperation demonstrates the strong strength of our drug development and is also an important milestone in the development of CD73
.