BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM ENTERS GLOBAL LICENSING AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP AND COMMERCIALIZE INNOVATIVE ANTIBODIES FROM A*STAR FOR TARGETED CANCER THERAPIES
2.6.2022 16:10:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Boehringer Ingelheim and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) today announced a global licensing agreement under which Boehringer Ingelheim will obtain exclusive worldwide rights to research, develop and commercialize products based on a panel of innovative, tumor-specific antibodies from A*STAR. Boehringer Ingelheim aims to use these antibodies to direct therapeutic effector mechanisms such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and T-cell engagers exclusively to tumor cells, and to that end develop a range of highly targeted cancer treatments.
“Boehringer Ingelheim believes that these promising antibodies in-licensed from A*STAR will help us advance potent therapeutic candidates against key molecular cancer targets,” says Clive R. Wood, Senior Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim and continues: “We look forward to developing these assets for a broad range of cancers with the goal to deliver breakthrough opportunities for patients.”
Boehringer Ingelheim is pioneering a range of versatile therapeutic platforms in order to develop innovative medicines that target the tumor directly (tumor cell-directed therapies) or that enable the immune system to target the tumor (immune cell-targeted therapies). One tumor cell-directed modality is antibody drug conjugates, which allows for delivery of toxins directly into tumor cells. Another is T-cell engagers facilitating direct contact between T-cells and tumor cells, leading to T-cell-mediated killing of the tumor. Both technologies are directed towards markers on the surface of cancer cells, also known as antigens, in order to attack tumor cells but spare healthy tissues.
The innovative antibodies from A*STAR can potentially enable the development of safer, more efficacious therapies as they selectively bind to antigens that are highly expressed on tumor cells but are absent on normal healthy tissues.
Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for further research, preclinical and clinical development as well as commercialization of targeted cancer therapies using the antibodies from A*STAR. A*STAR may receive payments totalling >100 million EUR in upfront and success-based development and commercialization milestones.
The technology used to identify the unique A*STAR antibodies resulted from a multi-institutional collaboration in Singapore. A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and Institute of Bioengineering & Bioimaging (IBB) generated antibodies which exclusively target antigens that were initially identified from gastric cancer cells. Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Singapore’s national platform for drug discovery and development hosted by A*STAR, then optimized the antibodies and confirmed their applicability to a range of other solid cancers. EDDC also demonstrated the utility of these antibodies in directing different therapeutic modalities selectively to cancer cells.
Professor Damian O'Connell, Chief Executive Officer of EDDC, says, “As Singapore's national drug discovery and development platform, EDDC is proud to translate great science in Singapore into valuable assets that can enable the precise treatment of cancer. We believe that Boehringer Ingelheim, with its broad expertise and technologies, is the right partner to maximize the potential of these antibodies for the development of safer, more targeted therapies for cancer patients.”
Professor Tan Sze Wee, Assistant Chief Executive (Enterprise) of A*STAR, says, “These antibodies were developed in Singapore through close collaboration across multiple institutions. There was also strong support by the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium. The agreement is testament to the best-in-class research taking place in Singapore. Cancer is a devastating disease, and we hope the fruits of our research can improve patient outcomes.”
Please click on the link for “Note to Editors’ and ‘References’:
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220602005475/en/
Contact information
For media queries and clarifications:
Dr. Reinhard Malin
Innovation Unit Communications
Corporate Affairs
Boehringer Ingelheim
Tel: +49 6132 77-90815
Email: reinhard.malin@boehringeringelheim.com
Owen Sia
Assistant Head, Corporate Communications
Agency for Science, Technology and Research
Tel: +65 6517 7866
Email: owen_sia@hq.a-star.edu.sg
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Pure Lithium Receives Australian Patent for "Lithium Metal Anode and Battery"6.8.2026 23:49:00 EEST | Press release
Pure Lithium Corporation, a vertically integrated next-generation lithium metal battery technology company, today announced that the Australian patent office has granted the company a patent (AU2025271196) titled “Lithium metal anode and battery.” Australia mines roughly half of the world’s lithium, yet has no domestic battery production at all; every battery the country uses is imported. The granted patent is directed to ways in which Pure Lithium’s technology can change that. Rather than trying to catch up in lithium-ion, Australia can leapfrog the incumbent technology and establish a next-generation industry. As worldwide demand for batteries grows, every country capable of making batteries needs to be making them. That is Pure Lithium’s central goal: opening up markets around the world through battery technology that enables local, independent supply chains, keeping pace with demand and strengthening economies. China controls the lithium-ion battery supply chain and manufactures th
Vercel Appoints Amit Agarwal, Standard Template Labs CEO and former Datadog President, to Board of Directors6.8.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vercel, the agentic infrastructure company, today announced the appointment of Amit Agarwal, former president of Datadog and founder and CEO of Standard Template Labs, an AI-first service management platform, to its board of directors. Agarwal brings 25 years of enterprise software experience and a track record of scaling a product-led company from its earliest days into one of the defining public software companies of the cloud era. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260806738617/en/ Amit Agarwal Agarwal joined Datadog in 2012 as its Chief Product Officer and was named President in 2022, overseeing product, corporate development, and go-to-market functions as the company grew past $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Across 13 years, including Datadog's 2019 IPO and its first years as a public company, Agarwal helped build one of the industry's most studied examples of product-led growth at enterprise scale. He conti
Laserfiche Launches Advanced Enterprise Security to Deliver Multi-Region Disaster Recovery and GovRAMP-Ready Compliance for Highly Regulated Industries6.8.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management — today announced the launch of Enterprise Security, an advanced suite of security enhancements designed for organizations navigating complex regulatory environments. Enterprise Security addresses GovRAMP and CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) security requirements based on the NIST SP 800-53 framework. For organizations handling privileged citizen, legal or corporate data, these built-in controls streamline audit preparation and fortify defenses. With organizations placing a higher priority on data stewardship and corporate governance, enterprise IT leaders require a security architecture that protects data without slowing down operations. Laserfiche Enterprise Security extends Laserfiche Cloud’s highly resilient infrastructure with multi-region data replication, elevated security controls for privileged accounts, and built-in governance safeguards. “Maintaining data integrity and compliance has always
Khimji Ramdas Group Chooses Rimini Street to Reduce SAP Support Costs, Protect 700+ Customizations and Reinvest Savings in Innovation6.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), the Software Support and Agentic AI ERP Company™ and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced that Khimji Ramdas Group, one of Oman’s largest privately held conglomerates, has selected Rimini Support™ for SAP, a move that has helped the organization reduce costs, reinvest savings in AI innovation and maintain its highly customized SAP ECC 6 environment with zero downtime. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260806244148/en/ Khimji Ramdas Group Chooses Rimini Street to Reduce SAP Support Costs, Protect 700+ Customizations and Reinvest Savings in Innovation “Staying on SAP ECC is a strategic decision for us,” said Prashant Kumar, CTO, Khimji Ramdas Group. “We went to an industry analyst to ask what options we have to keep our ECC systems running without vendor support dependencies, and they suggested that we contact Rimini Stree
AM Best Upgrades Fortegra Insurance Subsidiaries to A (Excellent)6.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
The Fortegra Group, Inc. (“Fortegra” or the “Company”), a global specialty insurer and part of DB Insurance Co., Ltd., today announced that AM Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of its insurance subsidiaries to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICRs) to “a” (Excellent) from “a-” (Excellent). The outlook assigned to the ratings is stable, and AM Best removed the ratings from under review with positive implications. KBRA has also upgraded all of its ratings for the Company. The upgrade applies across Fortegra’s insurance platform. The property and casualty companies include Lyndon Southern Insurance Company, Insurance Company of the South, Response Indemnity Company of California, Blue Ridge Indemnity Company, Fortegra Specialty Insurance Company and Fortegra Europe Insurance Company SE. The life and health companies include Life of the South Insurance Company, Bankers Life Insurance Company of Louisiana and Southern F
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom