When Almirall raked in 200 million euros ($211 million) via a share capital increase in June, the Spanish biopharma name-checked licensing opportunities as one potential way to splash its newfound cash. Four months later, the dermatology company appears to have found its first opportunity, signing a bispecific antibodies deal worth $210 million in biobucks.
That money will give Almirall access to EpimAb Biotherapeutics’ Fabs-In-Tandem Immunoglobulin platform to generate, develop and commercialize bispecific antibodies. Almirall will have exclusive global rights to any resulting therapies from the collaboration in return for milestone payments totaling up to $210 million as well as a slice of the royalties.
“This agreement with EpimAb is an important step forward and a great example of our ambition to develop new biologics in the dermatology field to ultimately bring innovation to patients,” Almirall Chief Scientific Officer Karl Ziegelbauer, Ph.D., said in the Oct. 12 release.
EpimAb’s technology generates bispecific antibodies using only the basic structural parts of monoclonal antibodies without adding any complex changes. So far, the Singapore-based company has focused its platform on the oncology space, with five clinical-stage assets in the works. The most advanced is EMB-01, a bispecific antibody designed to target both EGFR and cMet on tumor cells, which is in trials for breast and gastrointestinal cancers.
“While we have made significant progress in utilizing our platform technology to develop a differentiated portfolio of bispecific antibodies in oncology, the potential of our platform in other areas such as immunology remains untapped,” EpimAb CEO Chengbin Wu, Ph.D., said in the release. “We believe Almirall is the partner of choice for this endeavor and look forward to exploring the use of our novel bispecific platform to offer additional treatment options for patients with immune-related disorders.”
Today’s deal isn’t Almirall’s first dalliance with a bispecific-focused Asian company. Back in 2020, Almirall signed an agreement to access WuXi Biologics’ antibody platforms to discover multiple new bispecific antibodies.
The Barcelona-based company’s hunt to expand its pipeline comes as it continues to wait for European regulators to make a call on whether to approve the atopic dermatitis therapy lebrikizumab. When closing its share capital increase in June, Almirall said it would use part of the proceeds to “actively pursue and swiftly execute inorganic growth opportunities (including bolt-on acquisitions and in-licensing opportunities) that are currently under analysis.”