Lonza collaborates with Immunitas to develop candidate; MedPacto signs agreement with Samsung Biologics; Revolo Biotherapeutics chooses CordenPharma to manufacture its peptide and immune system resetting drug candidate. Great to have you here for Bioprocess Insider’s CDMO round-up.

First up in our contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) round-up is Lonza, which recently entered an agreement with Immunitas Therapeutics to support manufacturing of Immunitas’ lead program, IMT-009.

IMT-099 is a monoclonal antibody that suppresses NK cells and T cells in the tumor microenvironment and can be used to treat both solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Image/iStock: Roman Didkivskyi

Under the terms of the agreement, Lonza will provide a customized and accelerated version of its Ibex Design program, which offers smaller biopharma companies complete product lifecycle management and focuses on preclinical and IND needs to Phase I.

The contract covers the development stages of IMT-009 through to early clinical studies. Furthermore, Lonza will provide access to material for manufacturing and toxicology for Phase I clinical study to begin. The firm will be responsible for drug substance and drug product manufacturing and will express IMT-009 using its GS Xceed Expression system.

“We are diligently progressing IMT-009, our first-in-class lead program targeting CD161, into the clinic, and this innovative collaboration with Lonza allows us to utilize the validated components of the Ibex Design program to accelerate our IND,” said Amanda Wagner VP of Strategy, Immunitas. “We believe Lonza will be a great collaborator as we work to rapidly advance our pipeline.”

MedPacto

Secondly, we have MedPacto, a South Korean company that develops therapeutics targeting autoimmune diseases and cancer. The firm has penned a deal with Samsung Biologics to develop and manufacture MA-B2, an antibody treatment targeting protein coding gene, BAG Cochaperone 2 (BAG2).

BAG2 protein encourages lung metastasis and tumour formation by attaching enzymes that regulate the tumor in cancer development.  The substance targets the BAG2 protein as a successive pipeline of Vactosertib that prevents transforming growth factor-beta.

MedPacto expects to develop the candidate into a therapeutic agent for different types of cancer expressed in breast cancer patients’ blood and if successful in developing the antibody treatment, this would be the first of its kind.

“The contract development service deal with Samsung Biologics laid an important foundation for developing and commercializing the pipeline that will follow Vactosertib,” said MedPacto CEO Kim Sung-jin. “We will enter clinical trials as soon as possible through close collaboration with Samsung Biologics.”

Revolo Biotherapeutics

Thirdly, we have Revolo Biotherapeutics which has partnered with CDMO CordenPharma to scale-up and manufacture Revolo’s first-in-class peptide and immune system resetting drug product, 1104.

1104 aims to treat patients with eosinophilic esophagitis and allergic disease and CordenPharma is set to support its upcoming Phase II clinical trials by manufacturing peptide Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for clinical supplies and future studies.

“CordenPharma is a world leader in the development, scale-up and manufacturing of chemically synthesized APIs, making it an ideal manufacturing partner for 1104,” said Jonathan Rigby, Group CEO of Revolo Bio. “With this partnership, we are ready to ramp-up and scale-up manufacturing to support our two upcoming Phase II trials, which we plan to initiate before the end of 2021.”