AnHeart Therapeutics, Co., Ltd. a clinical stage oncology company focused on underserved patients in global markets, has through its subsidiary AnHeart Therapeutics Inc. entered into license agreements with Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited to acquire rights to two novel clinical stage oncology candidates (previously Daiichi Sankyo codes DS-1001 and DS-1205, now AnHeart codes AB-218 and AB-329, respectively). Under the terms of the agreements, Daiichi Sankyo is eligible to receive upfront payments, as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and royalties on net sales following market approval of the products.
AB-218 is a novel, potent, highly selective mutant IDH-1 inhibitor, which has high permeability of the blood-brain barrier and has demonstrated encouraging safety and efficacy signals in a Phase 1 trial of glioma patients. AnHeart will develop this compound for glioma and potentially other indications including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and cholangiocarcinoma globally, except in Japan where Daiichi Sankyo will retain exclusive rights.
AB-329 is a novel, potent, highly selective AXL inhibitor, which AnHeart plans to test in combination with checkpoint inhibitors or third generation EGFR inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as other solid tumors and hematological malignancies. AnHeart has global rights to the compound.
“We are extremely pleased with our highly productive relationship with Daiichi Sankyo,” said Junyuan (Jerry) Wang, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of AnHeart. “These two clinical stage assets represent the expansion of our initial taletrectinib agreement, and are both differentiated and promising with multiple potential therapeutic applications for the global markets. These new license agreements highlight AnHeart’s progress towards our strategic goal of building a pipeline of targeted oncology therapeutics to help serve patients with unmet needs all over the world.”