A new Caribbean company has emerged to enter the increasingly crowded T-cell engager space. Excalipoint, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is paying $10 million upfront to China’s Lepu Biopharma in return for the rights to two preclinical assets.
Lepu can earn up to $847.5 million in development and commercial milestones, along with royalties from potential sales, according to an August 1 release (PDF).
Not content with just out-licensing assets, Lepu is also investing in Excalipoint, obtaining shares worth 10% of the new company through a subsidiary. The Cayman company has also secured a $41 million series A fundraising, with investors YuanBio Venture Capital and Apricot Capital leading the charge.
The two assets, CTM012 and CTM013, were developed by Lepu using the Shanghai-based outfit’s T-cell engager TOPAbody platform, the company said in the release. CTM012 has already obtained investigational new drug approval, Lepu added.
The company didn’t disclose the two assets’ targets, but is angling CTM012 for solid tumor, according to its 2024 annual report.
Lepu’s pipeline primarily consists of antibody-drug conjugates and immuno-oncology-focused bi- and trispecific antibodies. Offloading the development of these T-cell engagers to Excalipoint “is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders as a whole,” Lepu said, “because it allows the company to earn cash from them immediately that can “directly fuel the company’s strategic R&D focus and late-stage product commercialization efforts.”
“Furthermore, the transaction complements the company’s diversified globalization strategy by expanding the reach and impact of the company’s innovative pipeline on a global scale,” Lepu added.
This isn’t Lepu’s first time seeking external partners this year. The biotech netted $47 million in near-term cash from ArriVent BioPharma in January for a preclinical gastrointestinal cancer ADC.
The Lepu-Excalipoint deal represents the latest example of the increasingly popular “NewCo” model among Chinese biotechs, in which the original drug developer offloads mostly early-stage assets and partners with investors to form new companies outside of China.
And biotech has been going bonkers for T-cell engagers in recent years. AbbVie has bought into the modality twice this year, securing one phase 1 asset from China’s Simcere Zaiming for an undisclosed upfront payment and up to $1.05 billion in milestones in January and then inking a multi-program pact with Xilio Therapeutics for $52 million upfront a month later.
TCG Labs Soleil’s Juri Biosciences also looked to China for its T-cell engager, finding one for metastatic prostate cancer from EpimAb Biotherapeutics in May.