Anticancer drug development biotech company ‘PineTree Therapeutics (PineTree)’ announced on the 24th that it has signed an exclusive license and global license agreement with AstraZeneca for a preclinical epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) degrader candidate.
PineTree is a company established in Cambridge, Boston, USA. It leads the next-generation targeted protein degrader (TPD) field and develops anticancer drugs capable of overcoming resistance to existing anticancer drugs and various other drugs.
Under this agreement, AstraZeneca will have exclusive rights to globally develop and commercialize PineTree’s preclinical EGFR degrader. PineTree will receive upfront and initial milestone payments of up to $45 million. If the total deal value exceeds $500 million, additional payments for development and commercialization milestones (stepwise royalties) and tiered royalties on global sales upon commercialization will also be paid.
Dr. Hojoon Song, founder and CEO of PineTree, said, “We are pleased to sign a license agreement with AstraZeneca, a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry,” adding, “Through this agreement, we can advance one of PineTree’s innovative receptor degrader programs to the clinical stage.” He emphasized, “PineTree’s degrader was developed through PineTree’s proprietary multi-antibody platform. This degrader showed preclinical antitumor activity when administered alone in resistant tumors and demonstrated enhanced antitumor activity when combined with EGFR inhibitors.”
Fouzia Safra, Senior Vice President of Oncology Research and Development at AstraZeneca, said, “Targeted protein degradation is a promising field,” and added, “We are pleased to have exclusive rights to license PineTree’s degrader to develop treatments for patients with EGFR-mutated and EGFR-expressing cancers through this agreement.”
Meanwhile, PineTree was established in 2019 to overcome drug resistance in oncology and various other fields. It has a unique antibody platform designed to degrade cell membrane receptors and plasma proteins, and based on this, it is developing preclinical candidates in oncology and various therapeutic areas.
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