Don Tracy, Associate Editor

Under terms of the agreement, Nona Biosciences is expected to receive an upfront payment of $19 million, with the potential of up to $585 million in milestones.
Nona Biosciences announced a major global license and option agreement with AstraZeneca, focusing on the development of monoclonal antibodies into targeted therapies for cancer treatment. Under terms of the deal, Nona Biosciences will receive an initial payment of $19 million. Additionally, the company will have the opportunity to receive up to $585 million pending the completion of milestones along with royalty payments on net sales.1
“We are delighted to announce this agreement with AstraZeneca, global leaders in developing tumor targeted therapies, to maximize the potential of our novel antibodies,” said Jingsong Wang, MD, PhD, chairman, Nona Biosciences, in a press release. “This agreement further validates our leading antibody discovery platform, and we look forward to seeing our antibodies developed into potential new medicines for cancer patients.”
This isn’t the first time Nona Biosciences has collaborated with a major pharmaceutical company. Back in December, the company agreed to a global license agreement with Pfizer for the production of HBM9033, its MSLN-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). In January, Pharm Exec spoke to Wang regarding the partnership, and how it is poised to advance Nona's Harbour Mice Platform.2,3
“It consists of two transgenic mouse platforms for generating human therapeutic antibodies. One is called H2L2, which produces the regular size antibody, which we see in most ADCs on the market,” said Wang, in an interview with Pharm Exec. “The other is called HCAb. It’s only for heavy chain antibodies. This platform provides a unique foundation to build a next generation molecule such as bispecific antibodies. This gave us a number of options to drive technology and innovation.”
In the past year, Nona Biosciences also announced collaborations with organizations such as Boostimmune, Evive Biotech, and Lycia Therapeutics, all focused on ADC development through the Harbour Mice platform.4-6
“The global license agreement with Nona Biosciences is an exciting opportunity to further develop these antibodies derived from Nona’s innovative biologics discovery engine into novel tumor targeted therapies using AstraZeneca’s industry-leading capabilities,” said Puja Sapra, SVP, Tumor Targeted Delivery, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, in the press release
According to ADC Review, ADC’s aim to employ the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies by linking them to cell-killing agents. Due to these antibodies demonstrating the ability to deliver highly cytotoxic payloads directly to tumor cells, it offers a high level of deadliness towards cancer cells, keeping health cells untouched in the process. An idyllic ADC has the ability to increase cell-killing potential, increase drug tolerability, and provide limited systemic exposure.7
“Antibody-drug conjugates represent an innovative therapeutic application that combines the unique, high specificity, properties, and anti-tumor activity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that are tumor-specific but not sufficiently cytotoxic, with the potent cell-killing activity of highly cytotoxic small molecule drugs that are unsuitable for systemic administration alone,” reports ADC Review.