£21m deal: UK firm licenses cancer treatment technology from AUT's Kode Biotech

See also: After £21m UK deal, NZ’s Kode Biotech says IPO is option

Kode Biotech, a cancer therapy company founded by Auckland University of Technology professor Stephen Henry, has signed a licensing agreement with a UK company that will be worth up to £21 million ($47 million).

Agalimmune, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a pipeline of immunotherapies for the personalised treatment of cancer, has licensed Kode Biotech’s Function-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) cell surface membrane modification technology. The proprietary technology will be incorporated by Agalimmune into its novel cancer immunotherapy molecules. Immunotherapies are designed to elicit or amplify an immune response.

Kode is 6.03% owned by AUT. The largest private investor is NBR Rich Lister Sir David Levene, who holds a 15.08% stake via a holding company, followed by Prof Henry – who also serves as chief executive – with a 14.65% stake.

Under the terms of the agreement, Kode may receive up to £21 million in development and sales milestones, plus royalties on net sales.

Agalimmune has exclusive rights to the use of the technology in the field of intratumoral injection for cancer treatment, and specifically relating to the clinical candidate molecule AGI-134.  Kode Technology has been extensively validated by Agalimmune before in-licensing, and has been shown to be effective for treatment of both primary and secondary tumours in animals.

Agalimmune injects synthetic animal-antigen mimetics, which incorporate the FSL constructs, into primary tumours. As the immune system naturally rejects animal tissue, it attacks the modified tumour. In this process of destroying the tumour, the body’s immune system is educated to recognise the patient’s own (autologous) tumour antigens and so destroy unmodified primary and secondary tumours. 

“We believe this technology has great value in immunotherapy, and we are very pleased to be collaborating with a world-leader in the development of synthetic glycolipids. This licensing agreement also represents a significant step forward in Agalimmune’s progress toward the development of pioneering targeted cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for the benefit of patients," Agalimmune director Graham Griffiths says.

Giles Whalen, Professor of Surgery at University of Massachusetts where Agalimmune’s approaches were first developed, says: “This development builds on the mechanism of action research we have undertaken on this first-in-class therapeutic modality, opens the door to promising combination approaches of immune priming with checkpoint blockade and other immune-modulating therapies, and may bring new promise for the treatment of patients.”