PR88266

LAUSANNE, Switzerland and SEONGNAM-SI GYEONGGI-DO, South Korea, Feb. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/

- Korean and Swiss based companies leverage their oncology expertise to

initiate a research collaboration to formulate novel antibody-drug conjugate

(ADC) candidates

Genome & Company (CEO: Jisoo Pae, Hansoo Park), a global leading

immuno-oncology firm, and Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a Swiss-based

biopharmaceutical company specializing in oncology and infectious diseases,

today announced having entered into a research collaboration for the discovery

of innovative cancer therapies in the expanding antibody-drug conjugates (ADC)

class. This research collaboration has been undertaken with the goal of further

exploiting this new therapeutic class, potentially offering cancer patients

future treatments that efficiently target cancer cells while avoiding impact on

healthy tissues.

The collaboration between the two companies is built on the rapidly expanding

Genome & Company's novel target-based oncology drug pipeline and Debiopharm's

proven track record in oncology. The Swiss company has developed two standards

of care in colorectal cancer (oxaliplatin) and in prostate cancer (triptorelin).

Despite ongoing advances in oncology, cancer remains one of the leading causes

of death worldwide. Standard-of-care systemic therapies, such as chemotherapy,

have benefited cancer patients by killing existing malignant cells, while

targeted therapies, such as ADCs, offer new ways of stopping new cancer growth

by affecting the genes and proteins necessary for tumor cell survival and

replication. In order to accelerate the discovery of innovative tumor-specific

treatments, both specialty companies are combining their individual expertise

for the development of an optimal ADC candidate based on three important

criteria: the target, the cytotoxic payload, and the linker. Specifically,

Genome & Company, having generated several antibodies against novel oncology

targets discovered based on its own drug development platform, GNOCLE™ and will

now be armed with Debiopharm's Multilink™ technology to deliver cytotoxic

payloads to tumor cells. Multilink™ is a unique and innovative technology in

that it allows the loading of multiple and different payloads on an antibody.

With Debiopharm, Genome & Company will conduct follow-up discussions on the

clinical development and the licensing of newly discovered ADC candidates.

"This research collaboration has shown that the Genome & Company has a global

level of research and development capability for novel target-based oncology

drugs (antibodies) in addition to microbiome therapeutics," said Genome &

Company CEO, Jisoo Pae. "We will try to provide novel treatments to cancer

patients through active open innovation strategies for the optimal development

of novel drugs in the future," he added.

"The collaboration between Genome & Company and Debiopharm is synergizing both

our companies' technology assets and know-how to generate new Antibody Drug

Conjugate products. Our aim is to constantly explore different paths to bring

novel treatment options to patients with unmet medical needs," said Cédric

Sager, CEO of Debiopharm's development and production facility.

About the companies' ADC technology

Genome & Company has discovered novel targets and antibody candidates on its

own drug discovery platform (GNOCLE™). Debiopharm has developed several

proprietary ADC technology platforms, Multilink™ a cleavable linker-drug

-platform enabling high drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) ADC development and

AbYlink™ a technology allowing the covalent Fc-selective attachment of cargos

(cytotoxic drugs, radioactive agents or fluorophores) to antibodies. Debiopharm

has a development pipeline of more than 10 programs in bacterial infections and

oncology, including naratuximab emtansine (Debio 1562), an ADC targeting CD37.

Genome & Company Introduction

Since its establishment in 2015, Genome & Company has been a global leader in

micro-biome immunologic drugs and is developing next-generation innovative

drugs in the field of immuno-cancer drugs such as immuno-cancer micro-biome

drugs and novel target immune-gateway inhibitors. With the acquisition of

Scioto Bioscience in the US in August this year, we are taking the lead in the

market to become a global micro-biome healthcare group capable of R&D to

production, expanding a novel global pipeline for micro-biome treatments for

brain diseases.

About Debiopharm

Debiopharm develops, manufactures, and invests in innovative therapies and

technologies that respond to high unmet medical needs in oncology and bacterial

infections. For more than 35 years, our development and production facility

based in Martigny (VS, Switzerland) has been a world leader in

polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA)-based injectable, sustained-release

technology used for Decapeptyl®, an injectable controlled-release formulation

of triptorelin - a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist analogue.

Today, Debiopharm is developing several enabling technologies for drug

targeting such as Multlink™, a multipayload linker for ADC, and AbYlink™, an

antibody conjugation platform.

For more information, please visit www.debiopharm.com.

We are on Twitter. Follow us @DebiopharmNews at

http://twitter.com/DebiopharmNews.

Genome & Company IPR Team:

Seol Soo Gi

Team Chief

sugi@genomecom.co.kr

Tel.: +82 010-5496-5071

Debiopharm Contact:

Dawn Haughton

Communication Manager

dawn.haughton@debiopharm.com

Tel.: +41 (0)21 321 01 11

Source: Debiopharm International SA