China-based WuXi Biologics has signed an agreement potentially worth up to $925m with Candid Therapeutics for trispecific T-cell engager development.
Candid Therapeutics is a US-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, which is engaged in the development of T-cell engagers for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The firm is advancing two B-cell depleting TCE antibody drug candidates.
Under the agreement, Candid Therapeutics will gain global rights to a preclinical trispecific T-cell engager discovered using WuXi Biologics’ proprietary universal multispecific antibody WuXiBody platform.
The Chinese contract research, development, and manufacturing organisation (CRDMO) will be entitled to receive an upfront payment, development and sales milestones payments, as well as royalties.
Candid Therapeutics chairman, president, and CEO Ken Song said: “To further solidify our leadership position in T-cell engagers to deplete B cells for treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, this transaction uniquely positions us with three TCE programmes targeting BCMA, CD20, and CD19 in or near clinical development.”
WuXi Biologics is said to have enhanced the WuXiBody platform to meet the growing demand for customised multispecific antibodies. This upgraded platform aims to address complex challenges in bispecific antibody discovery and development.
WuXiBody enables high expression yields, stability, solubility, and easy purification, accelerating timelines by six-18 months and cutting manufacturing costs.
It allows for the assembly of nearly any monoclonal antibody (mAb) sequence into multispecific constructs with low immunogenicity risk and longer in vivo half-life.
The platform’s structural flexibility also supports various formats with different valencies, optimising performance for diverse biological targets.
WuXi Biologics CEO Chris Chen said: “This collaboration not only showcases the platform’s capabilities in trispecific discovery in addition to its well-validated bispecific discovery, but also reinforces WuXi Biologics’ position as a preferred partner for pioneering next-generation modalities.
“With this collaboration, we have enabled seven global programs for molecules discovery through our Research (R) platform in 2024 and are eligible to receive around $140m in near-term payments and the total potential payments exceeding $2.3bn.”
In a separate development, the Chinese CRDMO unveiled its plans to divest its vaccine facility in Ireland to Merck for about $500m.
