Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd., a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of novel nanomedicines designed to target areas of unmet medical need in osteoarthritis, pain management, ophthalmology and oncology, today announced the signing of a development and license agreement with Birdie Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (“Birdie”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Birdie and Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals are clinical stage biotech companies focused on the development of immunotherapy to treat cancer.
Under the agreement, Birdie will engage TLC in the development and manufacturing of a liposomal formulated dual agonist product against toll-like receptors 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) utilizing TLC’s NanoX™ technology. Birdie will be responsible for the product’s preclinical and clinical development, regulatory filing and commercialization. TLC will be responsible for the formulation development and manufacturing. TLC will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to US$49 million in potential milestone payments. In addition, TLC is also eligible to royalties based on the net sales.
“This agreement leverages our expertise and gives further validation to our technology platform’s capability to expand into other areas such as immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer,” commented TLC President George Yeh. “Our NanoX liposome technology has distinct advantages of achieving desirable pharmacokinetic profiles and preferential distribution to tumor tissues. We are delighted to partner with Birdie and working together on this collaboration to bring a potential new innovative therapy to cancer patients.”
“TLR7/8 are amongst the most promising targets for immuno-oncology and our dual agonists have demonstrated the ability to stimulate specific types of innate immune response, generating enhanced anti-tumor immunity,” said, Walter Lau, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Birdie and Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals. “Following our recent announced collaboration with a major pharma partner on combination trials with established checkpoint inhibitors, we are excited to be working with TLC to develop a potential best-in-class next generation product. We believe that the robust, scalable and replicable manufacturing process of TLC’s NanoX technology formulates a sustainable competitive advantage and the potential to commercialize worldwide.”
