Mersana Axes Lead ADC Compound, Puts All Its Eggs In NaPi2b Basket

Mersana Therapeutics has discontinued its lead candidate because of the competitive landscape surrounding HER2-targeted therapies, and will refocus on its only other clinical program, the NaPi2b-targetting ADC XMT-1536 for ovarian cancer and NSCLC.

Bins
Mersana's lead candidate has been put out with the bins • Source: Shutterstock

Antibody drug conjugate (ADC) biotech Mersana Therapeutics Inc. has thrown out its lead candidate XMT-1522. The ADC, partnered with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., targeted HER2-expressing tumors and was built using Mersana’s proprietary Dolaflexin platform.

Such was Takeda’s early confidence in the ADC that it paid $40m up front in 2016 and agreed to pay another $20m once an IND was accepted by the FDA. Mersana retained all US and Canadian rights to the drug, with Takeda taking responsibility for rest-of-world commercialization. (Also see "Mersana/Takeda Deal Adds To ADC Pipeline" - Scrip, 3 February, 2016

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