U.K.-based Epsilogen has bought Boston biotech TigaTx with the aim of creating “the world’s leading pan-isotype cancer antibody company.”
Both companies are focused on immunoglobulin antibodies, with Epsilogen’s work orienting around IgE, while TigaTX has been hard at work developing IgA therapies.
The deal, for which Epsilogen is not disclosing the financial details, will see TigaTx become a subsidiary of the London-based company.
“We are excited to create the world’s leading pan-isotype antibody company with the goal of bringing improved therapeutics to cancer patients,” Epsilogen CEO Tim Wilson said in the April 7 release.
“Combining the capabilities of Epsilogen with those of TigaTx gives us the ability to choose the most relevant isotype for a given cancer, whether a cold tumour environment we want to drive multiple immune effector cells into or leverage neutrophils,” Wilson added. “The transaction also facilitates the combination of different isotype functions into a single antibody molecule.”
The deal expands Epsilogen’s pipeline with TigaTx’s TIGA-001—to be renamed EPS 401—an anti-EGFR IgA antibody that is expected to enter the clinic next year.
Epsilogen already has a candidate in the clinic in the form of MOv18 IgE, which targets the folate receptor alpha antigen. While researchers discovered IgE antibodies all the way back in 1966, and biologics pioneers considered them at the birth of the biotech industry, Epsilogen claims its candidate is the world’s first IgE antibody to enter human trials.
Data from a phase 1 trial of MOv18 IgE have produced early signs of clinical activity, according to Epsilogen, leading the biotech to move the asset into a phase 1b trial in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Looking ahead, Epsilogen sees the deal as giving it the option to “mix and match IgE, IgA and IgG functionality into a single antibody molecule.”
“Such hybrid antibodies have the potential to activate multiple compartments of the immune system as well as possessing improved PK/PD profiles,” the company explained in the release. “This is especially powerful in the light of the importance of the epitope in determining the clinical performance of antibodies.”
In September, Epsilogen completed a 12.5 million pound sterling ($16 million) series B top-up to help fund the phase 1b study of MOv18 IgE. Previous backers Novartis Venture Fund, British Patient Capital, Epidarex Capital, 3B Future Health Fund and ALSA Ventures all returned for the latest raise.
Meanwhile, TigaTx—with tech based on work by Professor Jeanette Leusen at the Utrecht Medical Center in The Netherlands—secured $33.5 million in funding last December from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, along with a $2 million business grant from the National Cancer Institute.