The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is continuing its cancer therapy development program through a new partnership with a newly financed biotechnology company.
MD Anderson has entered a strategic collaboration with Watertown, Massachusetts-based Nexo Therapeutics, the cancer center said July 26. Nexo also revealed July 26 that it emerged from stealth and landed a $60 million Series A round led by founding investor Versant Ventures, based in San Francisco.
Tim Heffernan, senior vice president and head of oncology research at MD Anderson, told Houston Inno the partnership aligns with the cancer care center’s integrated drug development.
“Through collaboration and partnerships with early-stage biotechs or global pharmaceutical companies, we're providing them unique and unprecedented access to this integrated effort, through which we can advance a portfolio of novel and innovative medicines for our patients,” said Heffernan, who also serves as the executive director of the Traction research platform at MD Anderson.
Although the specific terms of the deal could not be disclosed, MD Anderson’s announcement said Nexo would provide research and support funding, and the cancer center would be eligible to receive royalties contingent upon further development, regulatory, commercial and business milestones. Nexo will retain rights to programs created under the partnership and has responsibility for development, manufacturing and commercialization.
According to Heffernan, MD Anderson sought a partnership with Nexo because of its platform, which specializes in using chemical biology to identify potential compounds that could be used for future treatments. The platform, described as a “chemistry engine,” is intended to reduce the time and capital drug candidates need before progressing to the trial stage. MD Anderson’s clinical trial expertise would come into play once the potential treatments were refined further.
Another facet of the Nexo partnership will be its focus on targets considered “undruggable” due to their resistance to traditional therapeutics. MD Anderson and Nexo will use their platforms to identify these cancers along with the potential drug candidates to tackle them, Heffernan said.
The partnership reflects a trend in biotechnology of blending development processes that had previously been kept separate to allow drugs to reach the preclinical and clinical trial stages faster and more efficiently.
“As a field, we had to recognize that there is still a high failure rate of oncology drugs that enter clinical testing, so we needed to take a novel approach,” Heffernan said. “Now we’re offering expertise and translational research to our biopharmaceutical partners to enhance the drugs available to our patients.”
Reflecting that trend, MD Anderson has had a professional drug discovery division for over a decade, according to Heffernan. The cancer center has signed additional partnerships to help advance oncology treatments.
MD Anderson also created the Cancer Focus Fund, a venture fund targeting investments in cancer therapy. The fund launched in 2020 with $50 million in commitments from backers including the Rice University Endowment. Its most recent investment was a $4.5 million commitment to Houston-based ImmunoGenesis for supporting upcoming clinical trials.
The cancer care center also has agreements to partner with health care facilities around the nation. In June, MD Anderson signed a partnership with Ochsner Health in Louisiana to create a joint brand known as Ochsner MD Anderson. The facilities employ 675 people in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Covington areas.
Also on July 26, MD Anderson announced the expansion of its oncology efforts in Mozambique and Brazil. The cancer center, along with Rice University and partners in Mozambique and Brazil, was awarded a $5.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health focused on cervical cancer prevention and treatment among women living with HIV. The expansion also includes a new four-year agreement with the Ministry of Health in Mozambique, building on nearly a decade of work focused on cervical cancer as well as adding breast and prostate cancer care.
Former Dell executive Howard Elias and his wife Susan donated $16.25 million to MD Anderson in July to help spark research into cancer neuroscience. Elias' son was a former patient who was treated by the center's doctors.
