Bolt Biotherapeutics was anything but quiet this summer.
Bolt Biotherapeutics was anything but quiet this summer. The California-based company snagged a deal with Genmab in June and Innovent Biologics in August. And now in September, Bolt has announced a clinical collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. The deal was announced on Wednesday.
As part of the collaboration, the companies will investigate Bolt’s BDC-1001 in combination with BMS’ Opdivo.
“We look forward to working with BMS in our continued development of BDC-1001, which has shown promising results in preclinical and early clinical studies,” said Randall Schatzman, CEO of Bolt Biotherapeutics. “The combination of BDC-1001 and Opdivo holds potential as a treatment for cancer patients, and we welcome the opportunity to investigate this in a clinical setting.”
BDC-1001 is also currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with solid tumors that are HER2+ or HER2-low. Bolt shared preliminary safety and tolerability data from that trial at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.
All of Bolt’s recent collaborations support the company’s goal of pioneering a new class of immuno-oncology agents that combine the targeting precision of antibodies with innate and adaptive immune systems.
Bolt’s collaboration with Genmab is to discover and develop next-generation, immune-stimulatory, antibody-based conjugate therapeutics for treating cancer. Genmab will fund the research, preclinical and clinical development of up to three candidates through clinical proof of concept.
“This exciting collaboration will provide a unique opportunity to combine Genmab’s innovative bispecific antibody technologies with Bolt’s powerful, advanced ISAC technology to develop targeted antibody products with the potential to transform cancer treatment,” said Jan van de Winkel, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Genmab at the time of announcement.
Innovent and Bolt’s alliance has a goal of developing three new anti-cancer therapeutic immune-stimulating antibody conjugate (ISAC) candidates. ISAC combines the precision of antibody targeting with the strength of the innate and adaptive immune systems. As part of the agreement, Bolt will receive a $5 million upfront payment from Innovent with the possibility of $10 million in future equity investment.
“We are very excited about the potential for the Boltbody ISAC platform to generate best-in-class approaches treating multiple tumor types,” Dr. Yong Jun Liu, president of Innovent Biologics said at the time of announcement. “Bolt has spent several years building and optimizing this platform, which we can leverage to expedite the development of important new products.”
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