Numab and 3SBio’s Sunshine Guojian expand partnership

Numab Therapeutics AG (Numab) and 3SBio Inc. (“3SBio”, HKEX:1530) announced today that 3SBio’s subsidiary Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (“Sunshine Guojian”) exercised its option for an exclusive regional license for the development and commercialization of NM28, a potential best-in-class bivalent mesothelin (MSLN)-targeting CD3 T cell engager.

Under the terms of this collaboration, which builds on the existing relationship between the two parties established in 2019, Sunshine Guojian will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize NM28 in the Greater China area, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Numab retains NM28 rights for the rest of the world.

“We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with Sunshine Guojian, which illustrates our global development strategy to form regional partnerships in Asia for our proprietary assets,” said David Urech, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Numab Therapeutics. “NM28 is a next generation T cell engager for the therapy of mesothelin-expressing tumors based on our MATCH^TM-4 platform that allows for bivalent interaction with mesothelin and therefore holds the potential for a larger therapeutic window over conventional T cell engagers.”

“Collaborating with the world's leading technology platforms and biotech companies to develop high-quality drug candidates is a central pillar of our growth strategy. We are looking forward to working with Numab on this very exciting cancer therapy targeting difficult to treat tumors. This alliance is in line with our goal to expand our pipeline with a diverse set of first-in-class multispecific antibodies,” said Dr. Jing Lou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 3SBio.

About NM28
NM28 consists of four stabilized and humanized antibody variable domain fragments directed against MSLN, CD3 and human serum albumin (HSA). MSLN is commonly expressed in a variety of tumor cells, including mesothelioma, lung, biliary, ovarian, breast and pancreatic cancer. NM28 is designed to be resistant to the scavenging effect of soluble MSLN shed from tumor cells to improve efficacy, and to discriminate between tumor cells and MSLN-expressing normal cells to improve safety when compared to monovalent T cell engaging approaches targeting MSLN.