In its first collaboration, privately held Adnexus Therapeutics Inc. stands to receive $30 million in up-front and research funding over three years from partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. for discovering Adnectin-based drugs against cancer targets.

The aim of the worldwide alliance is to discover compounds designed to modulate oncology targets using Adnexus' PROfusion technology. Adnexus could deliver up to six preclinical candidates to BMS, which will take over development and commercialization, in exchange for development milestone payments of up to $210 million for each compound. That figure does not include sales-based milestones or royalties from any product sales, said John Mendlein, CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Adnexus.

"It will be interesting to see how the marketplace translates this deal," he said. In addition to the obvious financial benefit, the collaboration also draws attention to the small biotech company, which has stayed "under the radar" since its initial founding as Compound Therapeutics Inc. in September 2002.

But with big pharma scrambling to fill dwindling pipelines, Adnexus is looking to draw attention to its class of therapeutics called Adnectins. Described as protein drugs based on human fibronectin - specifically the tenth fibronectin domain - Adnectins are "redirected to bind to disease targets," Mendlein said. The significance of the tenth domain is that it is the same shape "as the business end of an antibody," he told BioWorld Today. "That means there's a precedent as to how the drugs will work."

Given pharma's interest in antibodies, as evidenced by some recent deals - most notably the whopping $2.1 billion collaboration announced in December between Danish antibody firm Genmab A/S and London-based GlaxoSmithKline - Adnexus' Adnectin platform could hold significant promise, Mendlein said.

"We think we can develop [drugs that] have mechanisms of action that are kissing cousins to antibodies, but are distinct and advantageous," he said. For starters, Adnexus owns all the intellectual property rights for Adnectins, and, since Adnectins involve a different composition from antibodies, "we can leapfrog over existing antibody IP.

"We also think the intrinsic properties of Adnectins are easier to work with and we can design more efficacious therapeutics," he said.

The cost of manufacturing Adnectins is also less, since the protein products can be produced in E. coli.

To date, Adnexus has advanced its first product into the clinic, cancer drug Angiocept (CT-322), an Adnectin targeting the vascular endothelin growth factor receptor-2. That drug has demonstrated promising pharmacokinetic activity in Phase I testing, and is expected to enter Phase II in the second half of this year.

Though Angiocept is not included in the BMS collaboration, "it was definitely a selling point for us," Mendlein said. Following Angiocept, the company has a preclinical pipeline in oncology and other areas.

In its deal with Princeton, N.J.-based BMS, Adnexus will use its PROfusion technology, a system designed to make and search trillions of different versions of Adnectins, to discover up to three compounds against cancer. BMS then has the option to continue the collaboration for another three oncology targets. The financial terms that would trigger that expansion were not disclosed.

The deal "allows us to work with a partner that's very experienced in developing oncology products," Mendlein said. It also offers Adnexus a limited co-promotion option for the first product to gain U.S. approval, which would "be a nice opportunity to help leverage" a sales force that also could be employed to commercialize Angiocept.

Mendlein said he anticipates additional collaborations down the road, though the company will continue to be "selective on how we structure and design our deals."

To date, the company's funding has come from venture capital firms, including Venrock Associates, Atlas Ventures, Flagship Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. Adnexus has raised $55 million since its inception, including a $27 million Series B round in June 2006.