Debiopharm Extends SunRock Biopharma Partnership for Antibody Drug Conjugates Targeting HER3 in EGFR Mutated Cancers

LAUSANNE, Switzerland & SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a privately-owned, Swiss-based, biopharmaceutical company aiming to establish tomorrow’s standard-of-care to cure cancer and infectious diseases, today secured an option to enter an exclusive licensing deal with SunRock Biopharma (www.sunrockbiopharma.com), a Galician company supported by the regional government, Xunta de Galicia, through Xes Galicia. SunRock is devoted to the development of sophisticated, bispecific antibodies against highly invasive tumors with an urgent clinical need in oncology and will benefit from Debiopharm’s Multilink™ technology to produce an enhanced HER3-EGFR bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). This option agreement prolongs the existing partnership that was initiated in September of this year allowing Debiopharm to further develop HER2/HER3 targeting antibodies.

“At Debiopharm, we are actively scouting for opportunities to apply our proprietary linker technology, Multilink™, in a way that complements the licensed antibodies. Multilink^TM has been engineered to produce ADC with high drug to antibody ratio and excellent stability in circulation, to avoid premature drug release, and to increase treatment specificity and effectiveness,” commented Frederic Levy, Chief Scientific Officer of Debiopharm.

Over the past five years, ADCs have gained enormous momentum and become standard-of-care for the treatment of many cancers. The success of this therapeutic class is mainly linked to the possibility of chemically conjugating cytotoxic payloads onto antibodies, thereby combining the targeted specificity of antibodies with the lethality of cytotoxic payloads while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

"We are thrilled to enhance our partnership with Debiopharm. This collaboration enables us to merge our innovative expertise in bispecific antibodies with Debiopharm's cutting-edge Multilink™ technology. Together, we're paving new paths to address highly aggressive cancers with critical clinical needs. It's a significant step in our quest to deliver more effective, targeted therapies to patients,” commented Laureano Simón, CEO of SunRock Biopharma.

About Multilink™

Multilink™ is a new cleavable linker platform suited for multidrug attachment and compatible with any conjugation technology to produce ADCs with high DAR (drug-to-antibody ratio). This unique and innovative technology allows the loading of multiple payloads on an antibody for an enhanced therapeutic effect. This highly efficient and well-tolerated linker platform is available for use by other specialty biotech or pharmaceutical companies to generate proprietary, clinical-stage ADCs.

About SunRock Biopharma

SunRock Biopharma is a biotech company devoted to the development of therapeutic antibodies against highly invasive tumors with an urgent clinical need. SunRock has developed a unique portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutic antibodies and bispecific antibodies against novel targets, such as CCR9 and well-known targets such as HER3.

About Debiopharm

Debiopharm develops innovative therapies that target high unmet medical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. Bridging the gap between disruptive discovery products and international patient reach, we identify high-potential compounds and technologies for in-licensing, clinically demonstrate their safety and efficacy and then select large pharmaceutical commercialization partners to maximize patient access globally.

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