U.S.-based Boulevard Bio is paying $20 million upfront (PDF) to China’s Metis TechBio for the global rights to a trispecific T-cell engager (TCE) for autoimmune diseases.
The preclinical asset, dubbed MTS-128, has been developed with Metis’ NanoForge platforma, which the biotech has touted as the “world’s first AI-driven nano-delivery platform.” As well as the upfront fee, Boulevard has also pledged to pay out up to $1.6 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on sales should MTS-128 make it to market.
TCEs—which activate a patient’s own T cells—have remained a hot area in biopharma dealmaking this year, with Astellas penning a $1.7 billion collaboration with Vir Biotechnology for a prostate cancer TCE and Boehringer Ingelheim listing the modality as high up on the pharma’s shopping list.
Unlike traditional bispecific TCEs, Metis’ MTS-128 is aimed at three targets—although the company didn’t disclose what these are in its June 30 filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. However, the biotech lists the asset on its website as targeting an unnamed autoimmune indication.
The theory that TCEs could be turned to autoimmune diseases gained more credence earlier this month when Cullinan Therapeutics unveiled a slice of clinical data for its own candidate in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Metis was founded as Metis Therapeutics in 2020 by Hongming Chen, former chief scientific officer at eye disease-focused Kala Pharmaceuticals, along with MIT scientists Tsai-Ta Lai—who serves as CEO—and Chief Operating Officer Wenshou Wang. The company has China bases in Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, as well as an outpost in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Metis went public last month and claims to own the “world’s largest proprietary LNP lipid library with over 10 million lipids.”
“Compared with traditional bispecific TCEs, trispecific TCEs can simultaneously modulate more biological mechanisms, offering unique potential advantages in enhancing target cell killing efficiency, increasing therapeutic window, improving selectivity and safety profiles,” Metis said in this morning's filing.
“The successful development of MTS-128 demonstrates Metis TechBio’s capability to deeply integrate artificial intelligence with protein drug design, and validates the potential of NanoForge to continuously generate innovative assets,” the company added.
Beyond MTS-128, Metis has a varied pipeline in preclinical and clinical development across immunology, oncology, metabolic and central nervous system indications. The most advanced asset is MTS-004, a reformulated version of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals’ Nuedexta for pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition characterized by involuntary laughing or crying
For its part, Boulevard has been keeping a low profile. While the filing mentions that the biotech is “focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies” and was founded with support from Deerfield Management, the healthcare investment firm’s website doesn’t yet list the company among its portfolio.