Amphista Therapeutics Announces Over $2 Billion in Strategic Collaborations with BMS and Merck KGaA to Advance Next-Generation Targeted Protein Degradation Therapies

Today, Amphista Therapeutics announced separate research and development collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Merck KGaA, Germany, to develop a new generation of protein degradation therapies based on its unique protein degrader discovery platform. Last year, the company completed a $53 million Series B financing round, with investors including Novartis Venture Fund and Eli Lilly and Company. Targeted protein degradation is an emerging field in drug development in recent years. Amphista has successively gained favor from several large pharmaceutical companies. What are the distinctive features of its technology platform?

Targeted protein degradation therapy usually utilizes the inherent protein degradation mechanisms within cells to guide the degradation of specific target proteins. PROTAC, as a representative protein degrader, is typically a bifunctional molecule. One end binds to the target protein, while the other end binds to ubiquitin E3 ligase, prompting the E3 ligase to add ubiquitin modifications to the target protein, leading to its degradation. Multiple PROTAC molecules have already shown promising activity in clinical trials.

Amphista Therapeutics aims to overcome the limitations of first-generation protein degraders, including suboptimal drug-like properties and oral bioavailability of the molecules, potential resistance to the protein degradation mechanism, and limited cell and tissue types where the degraders can exert their effects, among others.

The targeted protein degradation drugs developed by the company can link target proteins with the proteasome degradation system through an innovative mechanism, thereby expanding the application scope of protein degraders.

Image Source: Amphista Therapeutics Official Website

Moreover, the protein degradation mechanism used by the company targets proteins essential for tumor cell growth, which means that it is difficult for tumors to develop resistance through mutations in these proteins. Therefore, the company's degradation mechanism may offer more durable anticancer effects.

Image Source: Amphista Therapeutics Official Website

The company's technology platform also supports targeted protein degraders with better drug-like properties, including oral bioavailability and effective tissue penetration (including the central nervous system).

Image Source: Amphista Therapeutics Official Website

In the collaboration with Merck KGaA, the two companies will develop small molecule protein degraders for three targets in the fields of oncology and immunology. Amphista is eligible to receive up to $1 billion in upfront and milestone payments. In the partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb, the two parties will collaborate on the discovery and development of small molecule protein degraders, with Amphista receiving a $30 million upfront payment and being eligible for up to $1.25 billion in milestone payments.

Amphista Therapeutics CEO Nicola Thompson said that the cooperation with two large pharmaceutical companies is a validation of the company's targeted protein degradation research and its next-generation technology platform. Amphista looks forward to collaborating with the teams from Merck Germany and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

References:

[1] Amphista Therapeutics Enters Strategic Collaboration with Merck for Discovery and Development of Targeted Protein Degradation Therapeutics. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://amphista.com/amphista-therapeutics-enters-strategic-collaboration-with-merck-for-discovery-and-development-of-targeted-protein-degradation-therapeutics/

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