Daiichi Sankyo pays $132 million for Glycotope’s gatipotuzumab

Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568) announced that it will pay Glycotope GmbH $132.5 million to acquire intellectual property rights of the antitumor-associated mucin-1 (TA-MUC1) antibody, gatipotuzumab.

Such payment by Daiichi Sankyo satisfies all potential clinical, regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as royalties of products that include gatipotuzumab as part of a 2018 licensing agreement between the parties, the company explained.

In 2018, Daiichi Sankyo in-licensed exclusive rights to develop and commercialize gatipotuzumab worldwide as an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) from Glycotope. The anti-TA-MUC1 is the antibody contained in DS-3939, an ADC being developed by Daiichi Sankyo. DS-3939 is a specifically engineered potential first-in-class TA-MUC1 directed medicine designed using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary DXd ADC technology. DS-3939 is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with several types of advanced solid tumors including non-small cell lung, breast, urothelial, ovarian, biliary tract and pancreatic cancer, Daiichi Sankyo noted.