Illustrative image of cancer cells (Design Cells; iStock by Getty Images)
KAHR, a maker of cancer immunotherapies, said it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia to develop and commercialize a number of new cancer drug candidates.
Under the agreement, the university is granting KAHR the license to develop and commercialize new immuno-oncology drug candidates based on fusion proteins. These drugs are complex structures made by fusing the natural sequence of different proteins to make them bind two or three targets on cancer and immune cells. The new drug candidates entering development are called DSP502 (TIGITxPD1) and DSP216 (LILRB2xSIRPa).
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JERUSALEM, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ KAHR, a cancer immunotherapy company developing novel multifunctional immuno-recruitment proteins, announced today that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Thomas Jefferson University a national doctoral research university and its clinical enterprise, Jefferson Health, located in Philadelphia, PA. Under the agreement, Thomas Jefferson University is granting KAHR an exclusive license to develop and commercialize multiple new drug candidates including DSP502, a TIGITxPD1 fusion protein, and DSP216, a LILRB2xSIRPa fusion protein for immuno-oncology. With this agreement we are adding a second fusion protein platform to our portfolio, enabling us to broaden our immuno-oncology target pipeline and positioning KAHR as a world leader in the fusion protein space, said Yaron Pereg, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of KAHR. Both DSP502 and DSP216 focus on promising checkpoint pathways, unleashing