Alligator Bioscience has announced an expansion to its research collaboration and license agreement with Orion Corporation, to discover and develop together new bispecific antibody cancer therapeutics.

The collaboration has been expanded to add the development of a second bispecific antibody using Alligator’s bispecific RUBY platform, where Alligator will provide validated monospecific binders for one target and Orion will do the same for the other target.

”We are excited to start another joint project with Alligator Bioscience and continue our development of new immuno-oncology treatments, which has started very well,” said Outi Vaarala, Senior Vice President, R&D, of Orion Corporation.

The initial agreement

Under the initial agreement signed in 2021, Alligator employs its phage display libraries and RUBY bispecific platform to develop immuno-oncology product candidates based on design criteria identified by Orion. Alligator remains eligible for development, approval and sales milestone payments of up to 469 million EUR across the three potential programs, in addition to royalties if Orion exercises its options to continue development and commercialization of the resulting product candidates.

An upfront payment of 1.25 million EUR

The initiation of the second program provides Alligator Bioscience with an upfront payment of 1.25 million EUR, including the fee for its validated binders being made available, with an additional 500,000 EUR payment being due to Alligator Bioscience when the technical feasibility of the bispecific antibody has been demonstrated in relation to the validated binders.

“Our collaboration with Orion is progressing extremely well, with both companies making meaningful contributions to the first program and complementing each other’s scientific expertise,” says Søren Bregenholt, CEO of Alligator Bioscience. “The initiation of this second project is a testament to the strength of Alligator’s technology platform, including our bispecific RUBY format.”

Photo of Søren Bregenholt and Outi Vaarala