- Pieris and Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company headquartered in France with annual sales of more than EUR4 billion, to jointly pursue several bispecific therapeutic programs including Pieris' proprietary dual checkpoint inhibitor PRS-332
- Alliance includes four additional bispecific programs and may be expanded to a total of eight immuno-oncology programs (including PRS-332); Pieris has option to co-develop and retain US rights for 4 of these programs, including PRS-332
- Pieris to receive EUR30 million ($31.3 million USD) upfront, up to EUR324 million ($338 million) in success-based payments for PRS-332, up to EUR193 million ($201 million) in success-based payments for each of the other programs and up to double-digit royalties
- Pieris will host an investor conference call on Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 8:30 AM (EST) to discuss the collaboration
Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PIRS),a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel biotherapeutics through its proprietary Anticalin® technology platform, and Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company, today announced a broad collaboration in immuno-oncology (IO). Despite the impressive clinical efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors to date, a majority of patients fail to respond to approved therapies. The collaboration seeks to address this significant unmet clinical need by advancing a series of novel molecules, including multiple dual immune checkpoint blockade approaches.
Under the collaboration, Pieris and Servier will initially pursue five bispecific therapeutic programs, led by Pieris' PRS-332 program, a potentially best-in-class PD-1-targeting bispecific checkpoint inhibitor. Pieris and Servier will jointly develop PRS-332 and split commercial rights geographically, with Pieris retaining all commercial rights in the United States and Servier having commercial rights in the rest of the world. The four additional committed programs have been defined, which may combine antibodies from the Servier portfolio with one or more Anticalin proteins based on Pieris' proprietary platform to generate innovative immuno-oncology bispecific drug candidates. The collaboration may be expanded by up to three additional therapeutic programs. Pieris has the option, at a predefined time point, to co-develop and retain commercial rights in the United States for up to three programs beyond PRS-332, while Servier will be responsible for development and commercialization of the 4 other programs worldwide.
The financial terms of the collaboration include an upfront payment to Pieris of EUR30 million (approximately $31.3 million USD). Pieris may also receive FTE funding for specific projects, an option fee upon potential expansion of the collaboration as well as development-dependent and commercial milestone payments for PRS-332 and each additional program. The total development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments to Pieris could reach EUR324 million (approximately $338 million USD) for PRS-332, and up to EUR193 million (approximately $201 million USD) for each of the other programs.Pieris and Servier will share preclinical and clinical development costs for each co-developed program. In addition, Pieris will be entitled to receive tiered royalties up to low double digits on the sales of commercialized products in the Servier territories.
Pieris' multispecific technology allows simultaneous checkpoint inhibition on the same cell, which could have a clear advantage over monoclonal antibody cocktails against different checkpoint targets. PRS-332 is a novel PD-1-based bispecific, comprising an anti-PD-1 antibody genetically linked to an Anticalin protein targeting an undisclosed checkpoint target. Pieris has developed PRS-332, which is currently in preclinical development, with the intent to simultaneously block two immune checkpoints co-expressed on exhausted T cells to further improve on existing PD-1 therapies.
"Servier is a highly complementary partner for Pieris, with a very clear commitment to oncology and outstanding development capabilities," stated Dr. Louis Matis, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer of Pieris. "The synergies of building unique bispecifics from Servier's antibodies and Pieris' Anticalin proteins are multifold, as the versatility of our plat...
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