Phanes and Fosun Kite Form Strategic Alliance for Innovative CAR-T Products to Treat Solid Tumor

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Nov 07, 2019, 13:12 ET

SAN DIEGO and GUANGDONG, China and SHANGHAI, Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Phanes Therapeutics and Phanes Biopharmaceuticals ("Phanes") recently formed an important strategic alliance with Fosun Kite Biotechnology ("Fosun Kite"). Under the alliance agreement, Phanes will exclusively provide Fosun Kite a collection of all high-affinity humanized antibodies targeting two novel cancer antigens for the development and commercialization of innovative CAR-T products for solid tumor treatments in China (including Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan). Under the terms of the agreement, Phanes is eligible for upfront and milestone payments as well as royalty fees in China. Fosun Kite also owns the Right of First Negotiation for global commercialization of the antibody use rights outside of China.

Dr. Ming Wang, CEO of Phanes commented: "This is our second deal of the year following the out-licensing agreement with Hanmi Pharmaceuticals in September. We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with Fosun Kite. Fosun Kite has built tremendous capabilities and expertise in cell therapy while leveraging the CAR-T experience of Kite Pharma, a global pioneer in CAR-T therapy, and they understand what innovation is like. Becoming a partner of Fosun Kite is an important validation of the scientific strength and capability of Phanes Therapeutics in delivering robust biological molecules that are suitable for therapeutic use. Our mission is to become a source of innovation for the biotech and pharma industry in the oncology field, and our efforts since the inception of the company 3 years ago have led to a very impressive pipeline, including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), bispecific antibodies and single-chain variable fragments (scFvs), among which one mAb and one bispecific antibody have entered the CMC stage. In addition, we have established the PAC^body platform, a proprietary technology for building bispecific antibodies. While we are aggressively advancing our internal programs, we are starting to reach out for various types of partnerships to maximize the positive impact of our pipeline in the fight against cancer. Moving forward, deal-making will be one of our major focuses. I'm very confident that we are going to have more deals added to our portfolio."

"We are quite pleased to have Phanes as a partner to advance the discovery and development of our CAR-T pipeline for solid tumor treatment. Phanes has rich experiences in development of humanized therapeutic antibodies as one of the leaders in the industry," said Dr. Richard Wang, Fosun Kite CEO, "In treating patients with hematologic malignancies, CAR-T has already demonstrated its superior efficacies. But in solid tumor treatment the world is still striving for a breakthrough of the technology. With the continuous progress of CAR-T, we believe it has tremendous potential. Fosun Kite has built unparalleled technology platforms and experiences through Yescarta's commercialization in China, hence we are confident to start building a sustainable R&D pipeline while driving Yescarta's NDA approval forward in China. With our newly opened R&D Center and the expansion of top R&D talents from China and overseas, we have established a firm foundation to realize this R&D strategy. We look forward to a successful partnership with Phanes, leading to more immuno-cell therapy product development to benefit cancer patients."

About Phanes
Phanes is a biotech company focused on discovery and development of innovative biologic drugs for tumors and eye diseases. Based at San Diego (USA) and Songshan Lake (Guangdong, China), the company's management team members previously held senior managerial and R&D positions in leading global pharmaceutical and Chinese biotech companies, with tremendous experience in R&D, commercialization and out-licensing deal making of innovative drugs. For more information, please visit www.phanesthera.com.

About Fosun Kite
As a joint venture of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd and U.S. Kite Pharma (a Gilead company), Fosun Kite is dedicated to the advancement of innovative immuno-cell therapy and its industrialization in China to benefit cancer patients. Since establishment in 2017, Fosun Kite has brought in the world's first approved CAR-T therapy for NHL Axicabtagene ciloleucel (US trade name Yescarta) from Kite Pharma and obtained the Investigational New Drug (IND) approval in China. The on-going registration clinical trial strictly follows the GCP and other regulatory requirements in China and will provide basis for NDA marketing approval. Located in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park of Shanghai, the company has built a 2000 sqm R&D center in 2019 to take a combined approach of internal R&D effort and external partnering/technology transfer for building Fosun Kite's sustainable innovation pipeline includes CAR-T/TCR-T programs in clinical and discovery phases. The company is also building an approx. 10000 sqm GMP commercial manufacturing facility in South Zhangjiang. For more information, please visit www.fosunkitebio.com.

SOURCE Phanes Therapeutics