Shanghai Escugen, a biopharmaceutical company based in China, has entered into a licensing and cooperation agreement with Anhui Anke Biotechnology (Group) Co., Ltd (SHE: 300009). Under the terms of the agreement, Escugen will grant Anke Bio the rights to its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology platform, EZWi-Fit, for the development of ADC products. Anke Bio will assume responsibility for preclinical studies, clinical development, commercial production, and sales of the resulting product within the Greater China region. In return, Anke Bio will pay equity payments, including upfront and milestone payments, as well as royalties based on a percentage of net sales. Escugen will retain the rights to the overseas market for the ADC products developed using the EZWi-Fit platform.
Founded in 2017, Escugen is currently developing ESG-401, a TROP-2 targeted ADC. The molecule has demonstrated superior dosage tolerability, a low incidence of off-target and on-target toxicity, and a favorable safety profile.
The EZWi-Fit technology platform is known for its stable degradable linkers and topoisomerase I (TopI) inhibitor payloads. ADCs developed using this platform have shown significantly higher in vivo activity against multiple targets compared to other TopI inhibitor-loaded ADCs. These products maintain strong anti-tumor activity in various load molecule resistance models, including those resistant to MMAE and Dxd. They also exhibit stable tumor inhibition and elimination effects on various patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models with low target expression levels and high heterogeneity, alongside favorable pharmacokinetic properties and safety. – Flcube.com
