Before Biontech, Sahin and Türeci founded the Mainz-based biotech company Ganymed. Here they researched a gastric cancer drug whose effectiveness could be proven in studies.
(Photo: imago images/Sämmer)
Frankfurt Biontech is researching more cancer drugs than large pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer or Merck, but the active ingredients of the Mainz-based biotech company are still in the early stages of clinical testing. A drug candidate from earlier research by Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin, on the other hand, has now shown positive results in a large phase 3 study. Experts expect that the manufacturer will be able to apply for the first approvals for the active ingredient zolbetuximab, which is said to work against stomach cancer, among other things, as early as next year.
The Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas announced a few days ago that the drug increased both survival time without disease progression and overall survival time in a study with around 560 participants. Astellas plans to present details at a specialist conference in the near future.
Zolbetuximab originally came from research by the Mainz-based biotech company Ganymed, which Türeci and Sahin founded in 2002. As with Biontech, which was founded six years later, the financing for Ganymed came largely from the entrepreneurs Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann and funds from the venture capital company MIG. In 2016, they sold the company to Astellas for €422 million.
Ganymede: Sale could bring in another 860 million euros
Approval for the cancer drug researched by Ganymed could bring the previous owners a surcharge of more than double the amount in the next few years. Because success-related payments of up to 860 million euros are within reach, which Astellas had promised in addition to the purchase price due directly.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
“The positive phase 3 study significantly increases the probability of further milestone payments,” said VC investor and MIG board member Michael Motschmann on the study results. “Ganymed’s research is therefore a success for everyone involved, companies, investors and patients.”
The MIG funds held around eight percent of Ganymed and are entitled to the milestone payments to the same extent. The family office of the Strüngmann family, as the former main investor in Ganymed, is entitled to around 90 percent.
Approval for zolbetuximab would also confirm the strategy of the Biontech founders in oncology research. Although Biontech has become known in the past two years primarily for the successful Covid vaccine Comirnaty, it is also doing intensive research on cancer drugs. VC investor Motschmann evaluates zolbetuximab as “proof of the robust science” with which the two researchers and company founders from Mainz worked.
High need for therapy in gastric cancer
Zolbetuximab is now considered a top product in Astellas’ product pipeline. Experts at the banks are already expecting annual sales of the drug to be more than $500 million by 2028, according to data from the British analysis company Evaluate Pharma. Because the need for therapy in advanced cancers in the stomach and esophagus is considered to be very high. So far, there have been hardly any medications, and those affected can primarily undergo operations and chemotherapy.
>> Read also: Concerns about drug shortages: “The situation has never been so serious”
In a smaller phase 2 study that ended in 2016, the active ingredient in combination with chemotherapy extended the survival time in the treated patients by an average of almost five to around 13 months compared to standard treatment, which is considered a significant therapeutic advance. At the American Oncology Congress ASCO, the drug was therefore already recognized as an outstanding new development.
It still took another six years for the phase 3 study to be completed, an example of the sometimes very long development times in the field of oncology. In the past two years, many studies have also been delayed by the corona pandemic.
Zolbetuximab: This is how the new gastric cancer drug works
Zolbetuximab targets a protein called claudin18.2 that is found in some types of cancer. It is therefore suitable as a potential target structure for cancer drugs to attack without damaging healthy tissue too much.
The Biontech founders Sahin and Türeci wanted to identify such tumor-specific targets with their company Ganymed. They were the first to identify Claudin18.2 as a possible target for cancer drugs.
Around two dozen clinical projects targeting this molecule are now underway around the world. In addition to the pharmaceutical companies Astellas and Amgen, many biotech companies are also involved, including Biontech itself. The Mainz-based company is working on both an antibody and a cell therapy that uses the protein.
More: Biontech continues to expand cancer research with billions in vaccines