China Medical System Holdings Limited (the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) is pleased to announce that the Group through its wholly-owned subsidiary signed a License and Collaboration Agreement (the “Agreement”) with VAXIMM AG dated 19 September 2018. According to the Agreement, the Group through its wholly-owned subsidiary gained exclusive, perpetual, transferable, sub-licensable rights to develop and commercialize the current pharmaceutical products portfolio and line extension of or under the control of VAXIMM AG (the current leading product is VXM01) as well as designated pharmaceutical products and line extension that will be solely owned and under the control of VAXIMM AG (the “Products”) in China (including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan), Singapore, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and other designated Asian countries (excluding Japan, India and Western Asia countries) (the “Territory”).
VXM01 is an oral T-cell immunotherapy. It is based on a live attenuated bacterial Salmonell Typhi vaccine strain, which is modified to carry vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2) as the target gene. Currently VXM01 is mainly being developed to treat patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). It has the potential to be used as monotherapy or in combination with surgery or immune checkpoint inhibitors. Oral administration gives VXM01 a high patient compliance. After several prime doses, VXM01 will evoke an antigen-specific immune response. VXM01 appeared to be safe and well tolerated and has received orphan designation from the European Commission and from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of glioma. The production process patent of VXM01 has been granted in China, which will expire in 2032. In addition, two other method patents which have entered into the Chinese national phase and have an expected expiry of up to 2036. VXM01 has completed the Phase I clinical trial in Europe and plans to conduct Phase I/II clinical trials.
VAXIMM AG is a privately held, Swiss/German biotech company that is developing oral T-cell immunotherapies for patients suffering from cancer. VAXIMM AG’s product platform is based on a live attenuated, safe, orally available bacterial vaccine strain, which is modified to stimulate patients’ cytotoxic T-cells to target specific structures of the tumor. VAXIMM AG’s leading product candidate, oral VXM01, activates killer cells targeting tumor-specific vasculature and certain immune-suppressive cells, thereby increasing immune cell infiltration in solid tumors. VXM01 is currently in clinical development for several tumor types, including pancreatic, colorectal and brain cancer.
This cooperation will further enrich the Group’s patented innovative products pipeline and the Group believes that the Products will have broad market prospects after being commercialized in the Territory.