ELLIPSES IN-LICENCES FIRST IN CLASS NOVEL IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY AGENT WITH POTENTIAL AS A NEXT GENERATION CHECKPOINT INHIBITOR
London, UK, 11 February 2025: Ellipses Pharma Limited (“Ellipses”), a global drug development company focused on accelerating the development of cancer treatments through an innovative drug development model, announced today it is to develop a next-generation immuno-oncology drug which could address the needs of cancer patients who do not respond to existing checkpoint inhibitors.
Ellipses has agreed to in-license global rights to ‘GENA-104’, a first-in-class immuno-oncology monoclonal antibody that targets CNTN4, a recently discovered checkpoint protein that is highly expressed in a wide range of tumour types. ‘GENA-104’ was first discovered by Genome & Company (“Genome”), a South Korea-based biotechnology company focusing on discovery and development of novel cancer target antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Under the agreement with Genome, Ellipses will take responsibility for all future clinical development of GENA-104 under the identifier EP0089.
In October 2024, key research findings were published in the prestigious journal Science Immunology, demonstrating the potential of EP0089 to target CNTN4 as a novel immuno-oncology treatment strategy.
A Phase 1 IND for EP0089 was approved by the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in January 2024. Ellipses expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial in South Korea during 2025 with expansion of involvement to the US and Europe following the relevant regulatory approvals.
Professor Sir Chris Evans, OBE, Executive Chair of Ellipses, commented: “We are delighted to be taking forward this very exciting drug candidate through the clinical trial process. The outstanding potential of EP0089 fits well with our strategy of identifying the very best drug candidates, developing them at pace and getting them to patients as fast as possible.”
Professor Tobias Arkenau, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer of Ellipses commented: “We are very excited to in-license EP0089, the first biological agent to be added to our pipeline. Targeting CNTN4 is a new approach that blocks the CNTN4-APP checkpoint interaction on T cells, promoting tumour cell killing. This approach could be particularly of interest across a range of cancers which respond poorly to conventional checkpoint inhibitors.”
Y.S. (Yoo Seok) Hong, CEO of Genome & Company, commented: “ GENA-104’s excellent potential as a novel target immuno-oncology agent has already been confirmed through preclinical studies, and with the IND approval for a phase 1 trial in Korea, we look forward to Ellipses Pharma utilising its strong financial resources and extensive experience and capabilities in oncology drug development to take forward GENA-104 as a novel immuno-oncology agent.”
