June 23, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN DEIGO – Companies attending BIO International usually have multiple items on their agenda, but finding potential collaborative partnerships are at the top of the list for the vast majority.
This year has been no different. In multiple interviews with BioSpace, companies have pointed to the desire for partnerships as a means of developing their assets and contributing to the growth of the companies. Instead of chocolates and flowers, company representatives from around the globe descended on San Diego armed with compelling data in hopes to woo a potential partner. Throughout the multi-day event, companies presented their assets in rapid-fire meetings. Some years, companies are the belle of the ball, while other years, they may be more of a wallflower.
For Scotland-based Nanogenics, this year was the reverse of that. When BIO was held in San Francisco last year, the company scheduled some meetings with potential partners, but it didn’t completely occupy every moment of the day. This year though, the small four-person company has held more than 36 meetings with companies large and small.
“What a difference a year makes,” Alan Walker, Nanogenics director of clinical development, said in an exclusive interview.
NANOGENICS
The company has been showcasing its precision medicine gene therapy product, called LipTide. This year though, Walker said the company came to BIO with a more robust data set that indicates the product can be used to treat a multitude of diseases. Walker described the technology as a key. He said it is designed to specific tumor targets where it releases its payload of drugs.
“It has a fantastic specificity,” he said.
Nanogenics’ LipTide is a nanoparticle composed mostly of peptides. So far the technology has shown promising results when used as a chemotherapy enhancer. The LipTide product is also currently being paired with treatments for neuroblastoma and cystic fibrosis. In both cases, data has shown positive results.
The LipTide therapy is so promising, Walker said he believes it will “revolutionize” gene therapy.
At BIO last year, the company was showcasing LipTide as an individual product, Walker said, but now they are able to demonstrate the “whole technology,” which is drawing approving nods from multiple companies, including “blue chip pharma.” Because of the high level of interest, Walker said he believes the company could sign up to four partnership agreements by the end of 2017.
“To be taken this seriously, that validates everything we have been saying,” Walker said.
Nanogenics is currently supported, in part, by grants from the Scottish government. If those deals come as Walker anticipates, he said the company could become self-financing and eventually look to have an IPO in the United States.
AVACTA
Another U.K.-based company, Avacta has also been pleased with the partnership opportunities found at BIO. The company showcased its preclinical non-therapeutic Affimer reagents, which are alternatives to antibodies. Amrik Basran, Avacta’s chief scientific officer, said Affimers have significant competitive advantages that address the limitations of traditional antibodies.
Avacta has several in-house programs for Affimers, including a discovery-phase immunotherapy program, and preclinical programs for a PD-L1 inhibitor program and coagulation. Early animal models in immunotherapy showed a reduction in tumor growth rates, as well as an increase in immune cell population in the tumor mass, according to company data.
Basran said the company is using BIO to find additional partners to help take the Affimer therapy into the clinic. Avacta already has some partnerships, including a proof-of-concept study with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to demonstrate the benefits of Affimer technology for CAR-T therapies.
NANOBIOTIX
Laurent Levy, CEO of Paris-based Nanobiotix, has spent weeks in the U.S. showing off promising data from its Phase I/II nano-based treatment for head and neck cancers in patients 70 years and older. First he took the data to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in early June, then came to BIO to continue showcasing what his company is doing.
Nanobiotix’s lead product candidate is NBTXR3, a first-in-class, radio-enhancer that can be used in multiple types of solid tumors. Nanobiotix is exploring the efficacy of NBTXR3 in multiple indications, including one Phase II/III for soft tissue sarcomas and five Phase I/II trials in varying cancers, including liver, prostate and rectal cancers. Soon the company will begin studies of NBTXR3 for use in breast, lung and brain cancers, Levy said.
Because of the strong data, Nanobiotix is on the dance card of several companies, although Levy did not disclose which ones. Many of the companies are looking to use Nanobiotix’ radio-enhancer product in combination with their own internal pipeline.
While no deal has been publicly announced, Levy stressed the importance of what a collaboration will mean for patients and improving their quality of life.
