Catalent has continued its foray into the antibody-drug conjugate space, this time penning a $10 million biobucks pact to evaluate Lisata’s tumor drug.
At the center of the deal is certepetide, an arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid (iRGD) cyclic peptide. In July, Lisata reported a “positive trend in overall survival” from an ongoing phase 2b study of certepetide in patients with a type of pancreatic cancer.
Now, Catalent wants to explore incorporating certepetide and its analogs as payloads for a range of ADCs targeting difficult-to-treat diseases. The goal is to create a “new class of targeted bioconjugate therapies,” according to Lisata’s Oct. 8 release, with the biotech in line for up to $10 million in tiered study initiation milestone payments as well as a share of future sales.
Catalent may be best known as a leading CDMO, but the company has been working on its own ADCs for a few years. The technology behind Catalent’s endeavors is SMARTag, a platform developed by the company’s Redwood Biosciences unit and designed to provide optimized site-specific protein-modification and linker technologies for ADCs and other bioconjugates.
Back in 2020, Catalent netted a $10 million upfront payment as part of a collaboration with Exelixis surrounding its tech. In exchange, Exelixis secured the option to nominate targets using Catalent's ADC platform over a three-year period.
Yesterday's deal “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,” Lisata Chief Medical Officer Kristen Buck, M.D., said in a release. “Catalent’s technology and innovative approach are a perfect complement to certepetide’s biology.”
Certepetide is a proprietary cyclic peptide that undergoes a process called protease-mediated cleavage in the tumor, producing a C-end Rule or CendR peptide that enables transport across the tumor stroma and improves delivery of anticancer drugs. The drug’s history stretches back to Cend Therapeutics, which merged with Caladrius Biosciences in 2022 to become Lisata.
Penelope Drake, head of bioconjugates R&D at Catalent, said the CDMO is “excited about the opportunity to explore iRGD biology as it relates to ADC delivery to the tumor microenvironment.”
“Early data suggest that incorporating iRGD peptides into ADCs improves efficacy and pharmacokinetics, leading us to be optimistic about the potential of iRGD as a novel payload class,” Drake added.
Late last year, Catalent finalized its sale to Novo Holdings, the parent company of pharma giant Novo Nordisk, for $16.5 billion.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correctly reflect the terms of Catalent's 2020 deal with Exelixis.