India's Glenmark licenses rights to APC compound

Indian drugmaker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (BSE: 532296) has entered into a licensing agreement with Boston-based APC Therapeutics for exclusive rights to a small molecule, immuno-oncology compound based on Antigen Presenting Cell (APC) biology. The compound has the potential to be used as a monotherapy or in combination with approved therapies to address unmet needs in cancer treatment.

“This asset adds to our robust biologics pipeline of targeted I-O therapies,” said Kurt Stoeckli, president and chief scientific officer at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. “The mechanism of action of APC biology is very intriguing and has the potential to be transformative in cancer treatment by triggering powerful immunologic responses to tumours that may lead to deeper and more durable responses to treatment,” he added.

Under the terms of the accord, Glenmark will license the product from APC Therapeutics, and manage all clinical development including regulatory filings and commercialization worldwide. APC Therapeutics will receive development milestones and sales royalty payments. Financial details were not disclosed.

“Glenmark is an ideal partner to advance such an important scientific breakthrough treatment to patients with cancer,” said Vinod Patel and Venkateshwar Reddy, the co-founders of APC Therapeutics. “This partnership is strategically significant for APC Therapeutics as it validates and advances our commitment to bring the right immunotherapies to the right patient populations.”

The global oncology market is growing exponentially and projected to exceed $150 billion by 2020, according to figures from QuintilesIMS. Driving this growth is the transition from short-term cytotoxic treatments towards precision medicines, most notably I-O agents providing substantial increase in long-term survival. Because of these improvements, I-O is one of the most promising and fastest growing areas of cancer treatment and research.