Cantargia AB and BioWa Inc. have signed an extension of the license agreement around the BioWa proprietary POTELLIGENTTechnology for production of Cantargia’s antibody drug candidate CAN04, which gives Cantargia broader rights to use the technology. Since the original agreement allowing use of POTELLIGENT Technology was signed in 2015, Cantargia has advanced CAN04 to phase IIa clinical development for potential use in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pancreatic cancer (PDAC).

Cantargia develops antibody-based pharmaceuticals against the interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein (IL1RAP). The POTELLIGENT® technology generates antibodies with enhanced antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The investigational antibody CAN04 binds IL1RAP with high affinity and functions through both ADCC and blockade of interleukin 1 signaling. CAN04 is currently produced in a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line provided by BioWa which has been engineered using POTELLIGENT Technology. The extended agreement enables Cantargia to create and use additional CHO cell lines engineered using POTELLIGENT Technology and develop and commercialize CAN04 made through such CHO cell line.

With CAN04 having reached phase IIa clinical development, the next step in the production development is to further reduce production costs using various process improvements as well as scaling up, and Cantargia and BioWa have agreed to extend the current license to include additional opportunities.

“We are extremely pleased with our collaboration with BioWa and the amended agreement is a logical step in our long-term relationship. Given the successful advances of CAN04, optimization of the production process to reduce cost is part of the CAN04 development plan”, Göran Forsberg, Cantargia’s CEO says.

“We believe that this extension of the license agreement would add benefits into the fruitful collaboration between Cantargia and BioWa.” said Takeshi Masuda, BioWa’s President and CEO. “We are very pleased that this amended agreement could support the innovative program going forward”.