After antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Seagen was sold to Pfizer last year for a whopping $43 billion, former CEO David Epstein said he was looking to “hopefully make new drugs somewhere else." Now, the long-time business leader’s next project, dubbed Ottimo Pharma, has emerged after three years in stealth with a potential Keytruda rival in its pocket.
Epstein is at the head of a star-studded leadership team that includes Boehringer Ingelheim’s former Chief Medical Officer Mehdi Shahidi, M.D., as head of development and chief medical officer, plus BioMarin’s Chief Business Officer James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., serving as board vice-chair.
Ottimo was born out of a collaboration between investment firm Medicxi and biotech entrepreneur Jonny Finlay, who is known for launching antibody drug discovery company UltraHuman in 2020. Now, with its executive team locked in, the biotech is racing toward a 2025 IND filing for its PD1-VEGFR2 bifunctional antibody Jankistomig.
Jankistomig was designed to target immune checkpoint inhibition and angiogenesis—or the formation of new blood vessels—as a dual-pathway, single agent, immunoglobulin replacement therapy (IgG) therapy. The preclinical candidate is designed to block both the PD1 and VEGF pathways, therefore boosting tumor immune cell biodistribution while minimizing VEGF-related adverse effects, all in the name of improving cancer treatment outcomes and reducing healthcare burden.
The drug is “exquisitely designed” and offers “large potential benefits to patients across a wide range of solid tumors,” Epstein said in an Oct. 28 press release.
Meanwhile, Sabry called the candidate “beautifully designed" and touted the asset's potential to "change the face of cancer immunotherapy."
Jankistomig may sound reminiscent of Summit Therapeutics’ Akeso-partnered PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab, which last month bested Merck’s oncology powerhouse Keytruda in previously untreated, PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer. While Keytruda blocks the PD-1 protein, Summit's and Ottimo’s inventions are built to block VEGF, a protein that’s crucial to the spread of tumors.
Ottimo’s offering, however, hits its targets in a “very different way" than Summit's, Epstein told Bloomberg, adding that the med will be delivered in both intravenous and self-injected forms.
“I want to see interesting science that can substantially improve people’s lives,” Epstein told Fierce on the sidelines of last year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting, musing on his next stop post-Seagen. “I’d want to work with people that have that same desire and goal and where I can help people be successful.”
Before taking the reins at Seagen, Epstein was known for building out Novartis’ oncology unit, founding the Big Pharma's oncology and molecular diagnostics units.