Magenta Therapeutics and Heidelberg Pharma sign agreement on Development of Antibody Drug Conjugates

Magenta Therapeutics which is a biotechnology company developing therapeutics to enhance and extend the use of curative bone marrow transplant for more patients and Heidelberg Pharma AG which is a biotechnology company developing new options to address major challenges in cancer therapy, announced the signing of an exclusive multi-target research agreement.

The collaboration will combine Magenta’s stem cell platform with proprietary antibodies across up to four exclusive targets with Heidelberg Pharma’s proprietary ATAC (Antibody Targeted Amanitin Conjugates) platform.

Michael Cooke, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Magenta Therapeutics said “Amanitin is one of the promising toxins we are exploring in our targeted conditioning programs, and our partnership with Heidelberg Pharma will allow us to fully evaluate the potential of this payload.”

As per the terms of the multi-target research agreement, Magenta will have access to  Heidelberg Pharma’s Amanitin toxin-linker platform technology. Magenta has an option for an exclusive target-specific license for global development and commercialization rights to each of the product candidates resulting from the research collaboration.

It is noteworthy that Healthy bone marrow stem cells and the blood cells they create are vital for survival but certain diseases can affect the bone marrow, interfering with its ability to function properly. A bone marrow transplant is a process to replace unhealthy bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrow transplant can save the lives of patients with blood cancers and genetic diseases and is a potential cure for patients with severe refractory autoimmune diseases. However, the high risks, toxic side effects and complexity of the procedure currently prevent many patients from being able to benefit.