NEW YORK – Epsilogen on Monday said that by acquiring TigaTx, it has gained new antibodydesign capabilities that can boost its early-stage precision oncology pipeline.
Boston-based TigaTx has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Epsilogen, which is headquarteredin London. Concurrently with the acquisition, Sonia Gulati, a principal at Global BioAccess Fund,has joined Epsilogen’s board of directors. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of thetransaction.
In December 2024, Epsilogen launched a Phase Ib trial of its investigational therapeutic antibodyMOv18 IgE in patients with FRα-expressing, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer whose disease hasprogressed after no more than four lines of prior therapy. MOv18 IgE targets FRα, an antigen foundon more than 70 percent of ovarian cancers. The treatment comprises a portion of the stem regionof an IgG antibody appended to an intact IgE antibody, combining the functions of both. IgE haspotent immune effector functions, which evolved to defend against parasites. It uses differentmechanisms to recruit immune cells than IgG, and an immunotherapy that exploits its functions,may be more effective against immunologically cold tumors.
In acquiring TigaTx, Epsilogen will add the firm’s IgA expertise and technology to its capabilities,enabling the development of new antibody combinations with enhanced potency. “Combining thecapabilities of Epsilogen with those of TigaTx gives us the ability to choose the most relevantisotype for a given cancer, whether [in] a cold tumor environment [where] we want to drive multipleimmune effector cells into or leverage neutrophils,” Epsilogen CEO Tim Wilson said in a statement.”The transaction also facilitates the combination of different isotype functions into a single antibodymolecule.”
The combined company will continue to advance the MOv18 IgE program and pursueinvestigational new drug application-enabling studies of EPS 401, TigaTx’s anti-EGFR IgA antibody.TigaTx researchers hope to generate clinical proof-of-concept data on the drug, which it believeshas the potential to be a therapeutic option for patients who are resistant to or intolerant of anti-EGFR therapies.
In December 2024, TigaTx received up to $35.5 million in funding from the Advanced ResearchProjects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and a $2 million small business innovation research (SBIR)grant from the National Cancer Institute.