Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPTX) saw its shares fall Thursday. The company, a clinical-stage precision oncology company designing and developing novel targeted therapies for cancer treatment, announced Thursday that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with LaNova Medicines Limited (LaNova) to develop and commercialize LM-302, a novel antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targeting Claudin18.2, in the U.S. and rest of the world, excluding Greater China and South Korea.
Claudin18.2 is a protein expressed in many gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric, gastroesophageal junction and pancreatic cancer. LM-302, which going forward will be identified as TPX-4589, is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials in both the U.S. and China.
Under the terms of the licensing agreement, LaNova will receive an upfront payment of $25 million and will be eligible to receive up to an additional $195 million in development and regulatory milestone payments.
TPX-4589 (LM-302) is a potentially first-in-class anti-Claudin18.2 ADC discovered by LaNova that suppresses cell proliferation of gastric and pancreatic cell lines with nanomolar potency in preclinical models. It also has demonstrated efficacy in gastric and pancreatic cancer xenograft models.
It is estimated that the annual incidence of gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers in the U.S. and EU5 is approximately 27,000 and 50,000, respectively.
The estimated annual incidence of pancreatic cancer in the U.S. and EU5 is approximately 60,000 and 70,000, respectively. Approximately 65% of patients in pancreatic, gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers have tumors that express Claudin18.2.
TPTX shares lost $1.44, or 4.3%, to $32.08.
