Teneobio Announces Poseida’s Exercise of Four Commercial License Options for UniDabs to Targets for Advanced CAR T-cell Therapies

NEWARK, Calif., Nov. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Teneobio, Inc., a clinical stage next generation, multi-specific antibody therapeutics company, announced today that in 2020, Poseida exercised four options to commercial licenses for Teneobio human heavy chain only domain antibodies, UniDabs®, to develop novel CAR T therapies. Poseida will apply licensed UniDab binders, which possess significant advantages over traditional single chain variable antibody fragment (scFv) binders, to develop its next generation CAR-T therapies. Targets were not disclosed.

This announcement follows the expansion of a commercial license agreement between the companies that was announced in August of 2018. Under the terms of that agreement, Teneobio would generate multiple UniDab product candidates using its proprietary UniRat® transgenic human antibody ‘heavy-chain only’ rodent platform and its state-of-the-art sequence-based discovery engine, TeneoSeek. Poseida would have exclusive global licensing rights for the clinical development and commercialization of specific UniDabs for CAR cell therapies.

Teneobio Inc. receives commercial licensing fees for these milestones and is eligible to receive future research, development and regulatory milestone payments per UniDab candidate, with total potential earnings of over $250 million for CAR-T therapies developed by Poseida. Teneobio would also receive royalties on worldwide net sales of each CAR-T therapy.

“We are excited that Poseida has exercised multiple commercial license options on UniDabs to create the next generation of cell therapies,” said Omid Vafa, CBO of Teneobio. “UniDabs have been preclinically and clinically validated as excellent human single domain antibody targeting moieties of CAR T-cells. They have demonstrated both in vivo specificity and robust efficacy. Their advantageous smaller in size, and superior developability relative to standard scFv’s make them ideal for CAR T-cell products.”

Eric Ostertag, CEO of Poseida, added, “We have evaluated a large number of binding technologies for use in our CAR-T platforms and view single domain antibodies as one of the most superior. In our view, the fact that Teneobio’s VH binders are fully human makes them a better option than camelid VHH single domain antibodies.”

About Teneobio, Inc.

Teneobio, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a new class of biologics, Human Heavy-Chain Antibodies (UniAb^®), for the treatments of cancer, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases. Teneobio’s discovery platform, TeneoSeek, comprises genetically engineered animals (UniRat^® and OmniFlic^®), next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics and high-throughput vector assembly technologies. TeneoSeek rapidly identifies large numbers of unique binding molecules specific for therapeutic targets of interest. Versatile antibody variable domains (UniDab^®) derived from UniAb^® can be assembled into multi-specific and multivalent therapeutic proteins, surpassing limitations of conventional antibody therapeutics. Teneobio’s “plug-and-play” T-cell engaging platform includes a diverse set of anti-CD3 antibodies for therapeutics with optimal efficacy and reduced toxicity.

Teneobio partners include AbbVie, Janssen, GSK, Kite, Poseida, Intellia, and ArsenalBio.  For more information, please visit www.teneobio.com.

Company Inquiries for Teneobio, Inc.
Omid Vafa, Chief Business Officer
ovafa@teneobio.com