NEW YORK – Allorion Therapeutics on Tuesday said it signed a license agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize an allosteric inhibitor of EGFR L858R mutations as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer.
Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will pay Guangzhou, China-based Allorion up to $40 million in upfront and near-term payments plus development and commercial milestone payments of more than $500 million and tiered royalties on worldwide net sales. In exchange, AstraZeneca will have an exclusive option to license the EGFR L858R allosteric inhibitor for global development and commercialization.
"Allorion's EGFR L858R allosteric inhibitor is designed to address mechanisms of resistance to current EGFR inhibitors and has the potential to enhance their activity when used in combination," Allorion Cofounder and CSO Fang Li said in a statement, adding that Allorion and AstraZeneca plan to explore the combined activity of the EGFR L858R allosteric inhibitor with AstraZeneca's EGFR inhibitor Tagrisso (osimertinib) and other EGFR inhibitors in clinical studies.
Allorion is also developing the CDK2 inhibitor ARTS-021 as a therapy for CCNE1-amplified cancers and hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancers. It launched a US-based Phase I/II trial in October to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and efficacy of ARTS-021 in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors.