Lisata Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:LSTA) announced that it has entered into a global product license agreement with Catalent, which would allow Catalent to incorporate Lisata's certepetide into antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) developed using Catalent’s SMARTag technology platform.
The clinical-stage pharmaceutical company said Certepetide, a proprietary, internalizing RGD (arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid), or “iRGD” cyclic peptide, is being tested by Lisata as a cancer therapeutic to be used in combination with other anti-cancer agents to enhance tumor targeting and penetration and improve treatment outcomes.
“This collaboration is based on positive preclinical results generated by Catalent’s use of an iRGD peptide as part of its SMARTag ADC platform,” Lisata Therapeutics chief medical officer Kristen Buck said in a statement.
“It underscores our mutual belief in certepetide’s broad potential and is another significant step forward in Lisata’s mission to bring transformative therapies to patients.”
Under the licensing agreement, Catalent will gain worldwide, non-exclusive rights to develop and commercialize bioconjugate products containing certepetide and its analogs, including the ability to partner with third parties.
As part of the collaboration, Catalent will also have the right to evaluate certepetide and its analogs as SMARTag payloads in clinical studies across multiple ADCs targeting difficult-to-treat diseases, with the goal of creating a new class of targeted bioconjugate therapies, according to the company.
Lisata noted that it is eligible to receive more than $10 million in tiered study initiation milestone payments plus revenue sharing on future sales and partnerships.
The company added that preclinical work supporting the incorporation of iRGD peptides into the SMARTag ADC platform will be highlighted at this November’s World ADC conference in San Diego.