Samsung BioLogics said that it has signed a contract development organization (CDO) agreement with STCube, a local startup company, to cooperate on developing the latter's STT-003 antibody, an immunotherapy candidate.

Samsung BioLogics headquarters in Songdo, Incheon.

Under the agreement, Samsung BioLogics will offer a wide range of services from cell line development, process development, manufacturing of non-clinical and clinical material, to investigational new drug application submission for STCube.

STT-003 antibody is an immune checkpoint inhibitor developed by STCube's research center in Maryland. The company previously signed a material transfer agreement with a multinational pharmaceutical company.

The candidate extensively expresses over the surfaces of immune and cancer cells, suppressing their immune functions. As the candidate has a high expression in various cancer cells, STCube expects therapies targeting STT-003 will exhibit more favorable anticancer effects than conventional programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapies.

STCube is planning to submit an IND on its STT-003 antibody in 2021, both for the use of monotherapy and combination therapy, and plans to conduct clinical trials at various medical institutions in the U.S., including MD Anderson Cancer Center.

"We have signed a contract with Samsung BioLogics to produce first-in-class STT-003 antibody, laying the foundation for stable implementation of global clinical trials," STCube CEO Jung Hyun-Jin said. "Phase 1 clinical trials of the STT-003 antibody, which the company aims to start by 2021, are being prepared jointly with the international of immune checkpoint inhibitor clinical trials, including those at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Samsung BioLogics CEO Kim Tae-han also said, "We are proud to contribute to the development of this exciting novel target anticancer drug candidate through our continued partnership."

By partnering with a world-class contract manufacturing organization, contract research organization, and CDO firm, bioventures can dramatically reduce costs and time, thus leading to faster discovery and development of candidates, he said.

Kim added that his company expects that the new drug development will help to improve further Samsung BioLogics' development and production capability.

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