SHANGHAI and OXFORD, United Kingdom, Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Biologics (2269.HK), a leading global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing and Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd. ("OBT"), a clinical stage oncology company with a pipeline of immuno-oncology and antibody-drug conjugate based therapies, today announced the expansion of their strategic and innovative immuno-oncology (IO) alliance through which OBT will research, develop and commercialize five novel bispecific antibodies for the treatment of several cancer types using WuXi Biologics' proprietary WuXiBody™ Platform.

The deal brings together OBT's target discovery and development expertise with WuXi Biologics' extensive expertise in developing world-class bispecific antibodies, to build value for both companies as OBT works to develop and commercialize this exciting portfolio of potential next-generation antibody-based cancer drugs. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as potential development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments up to $450 million, and will be entitled to royalties based on global sales of these bispecific antibodies.

"Our immuno-oncology (IO) collaboration with WuXi Biologics, around the WuXiBody™ bispecific platform and clinical mid-stage PD-L1 antibody, is a significant step for OBT to deepen and broaden our exciting first-in-class IO pipeline," said Dr. Christian Rohlff, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford BioTherapeutics. "Combining OBT's novel second generation IO medicines with a major check-point pathway into a single entity, with potential broad utility across many solid and liquid tumor types, is designed to generate novel therapies for patients who do not benefit from the existing IO medicines. Novel products from this collaboration, which combine multiple treatment modalities into a single agent, will improve the risk/benefit ratio, reduce costs and optimize future commercial potential. This deal will allow us to clearly differentiate our product development strategies from existing IO therapies and to generate products that will play a key role in shaping the future treatment landscape for oncology. Products from this deal are expected to play a key role in OBT's commitment to curing cancer."

"We are excited to expand our strategic partnership with OBT to include the proprietary WuXiBody™ platform. This is the 3^rd partnership we signed since we globally launched this exciting platform this September," said Dr. Chris Chen, Chief Executive Officer of WuXi Biologics. "Quick adoption of our proprietary WuXiBody™ bispecific platform further validates our beliefs that this platform addresses most technical limitations of current bispecific platforms and can potentially tremendously reduce the cost of making these biologics. We have achieved 16g/L in cell culture titer, 95+% purity after one-step Protein A purification and 95+% step yield for Protein A step. WuXi Biologics will continue to invest to develop next-generation globally leading technologies to transform biologics discovery, development and manufacturing."

About WuXiBody™ Platform

WuXiBody™, a proprietary bispecific antibody platform of WuXi Biologics, is potentially the Best-in-Class bispecific platform in the field. It can effectively break through the CMC barriers of bispecific antibodies development, expedite the process by 6-18 months and significantly reduce manufacturing cost, a severe limitation of other current bispecific platforms. WuXiBody™ bispecifics have achieved 16g/L in cell culture titer, 95+% purity after one-step Protein A purification and 95+% yield for Protein A step. WuXiBody™ Platform enables almost any mAb sequence pairs to be assembled into bispecific constructs. They are characterized as low immunogenicity, long in vivo half-life like mAbs and excellent stability. WuXiBody™ Platform also owns its unique structural flexibility, which makes it convenient to build various formats with different valency (2, 3 or 4 binding sites) to meet the requirements of different bispecific targets.

About Oxford BioTherapeutics

OBT is a clinical stage oncology company; based in Oxford, UK and San Jose, USA; with a pipeline of first-in-class immuno-oncology (IO) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) based therapies to fulfill major unmet patient needs in the field of cancer. OBT's IO discovery process provides unique insight into the cancer - immune cell synapse, and has identified several novel IO candidates for cancer therapy.

OBT's first two clinical programs are (1) MEN1112 (OBT357), an antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) candidate targeting Bst1/CD157-expressing AML blasts & leukemic stem cells, currently in a phase I dose escalation trial for relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia and (2) MEN1309 (OBT076), a DM4 ADC targeting CD205 in triple-negative metastatic breast cancer, bladder and pancreatic cancers as well as Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. MEN1309 (OBT076) is currently also in a EU phase I dose escalation trial.

OBT's pipeline and development capabilities have been validated through multiple strategic partnerships including with world leaders in antibody development (such as Seattle Genetics, Amgen, Alere, BioWa and BMS (Medarex)) and with leading European pharmaceutical company Menarini, which fully funds the clinical development of two programs in the EU to completion of phase II proof-of-concept, while OBT retains North American and Japan commercial rights. Additionally, two pre-clinical stage programs are partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim. OBT has a strong oncology focused management team and board with significant experience in developing IO and antibody-based therapies. For more information on Oxford BioTherapeutics, please visit www.oxfordbiotherapeutics.com.

About WuXi Biologics

WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is the only open-access biologics technology platform in the world offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly ONE-stop service offering and value proposition to our global clients. As of June 30, 2018, there were a total of 187 integrated projects, including 98 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 78 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 10 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and 1 project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity of biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, Singapore and US reaching 220,000 liters by 2021, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information on WuXi Biologics, please visit www.wuxibiologics.com.

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SOURCE WuXi Biologics