Advaxis, a Princeton, New Jersey-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, has granted a license to Sellas, a Hamilton, Bermuda-headquartered late-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop a cancer immunotherapy agent using Advaxis’ proprietary Lm-based antigen delivery technology with Sellas’ galinpepimut-S, a patented WT1-targeted heteroclitic peptide antigen mixture.

Under the collaboration, Advaxis will receive future payments of up to $358 million from Sellas if certain development, regulatory, and commercial milestones are met. Following any regulatory approval of the product candidate generated from this particular program, Sellas has agreed to pay Advaxis single-digit to low double-digit royalties based on worldwide net sales upon commercialization. Advaxis will conduct all preclinical activities required for an investigational new drug filing, after which Sellas will be responsible for all clinical development and commercial activities.

Advaxis’ proprietary Lm-based antigen delivery technology is designed to generate immune stimulation with T-cell responses, which, when combined with Sellas’ WT1 antigens, has the potential to direct an immune response, yielding clinical activity against cancer types that express WT1, according to Advaxis.

Sellas’ proprietary peptide antigen mixture, galinpepimut-S, has demonstrated positive Phase II clinical results in acute myeloid leukemia and malignant pleural mesothelioma and positive early clinical data in multiple myeloma, according to information from Sellas.

Source: Advaxis