SEngine Precision Medicine and Oncodesign Announce a Collaboration Agreement

SEngine Precision Medicine and Oncodesign Announce Collaboration Agreement for the Discovery of New Personalized Cancer Treatment for Aggressive and Untreatable Tumors

• Collaboration combines SEngine’s PARIS^® Test platform for drug screening on live patient-derived tumor cells and Oncodesign’s Nanocyclix^® technology for generation of novel kinase inhibitors

Seattle (US) and Dijon (France), February 08, 2022 at 06:00 pm CET – SEngine Precision Medicine Inc., a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer therapies by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived 3D cultures, and Oncodesign (ALONC – FR0011766229), a French biopharmaceutical company specialized in precision medicine, have announced the signature of a research collaboration agreement for R&D of a new personalized cancer treatment for aggressive and untreatable tumors.

SEngine is commercializing the PARIS® Test, a leading-edge diagnostic tool that pre-screens a broad panel of marketed cancer drugs on live patient-derived tumor cells. The results are analyzed using proprietary algorithms, culminating in a clinically actionable drug sensitivity report provided to oncologists for patients whose cancer has no remaining actionable treatment protocols. Dramatic results on the test’s predictive value have been reported for a number of terminally ill cancer patients.

Oncodesign has developed Nanocyclix®, a medicinal chemistry platform for generating highly potent and selective small macrocyclic kinase inhibitors. Using a probe-based drug discovery paradigm aimed to find highly effective inhibitors for intractable kinases, Oncodesign has built an extensive set of high potential compound probes that are highly novel. Since its inception, Oncodesign has advanced a two of these compounds to near clinical stage.

Testing of a subset of potent and selective Nanocyclix® probes against an undisclosed target proposed by SEngine has shown significant selective cancer cell killing effects on a broad range of patient-derived live 3D-tumor cell systems (organoids) for multiple cancer types that are highly aggressive and without currently existing treatment options. This observation confirms the potential use of the Nanocyclix® probes in SEngine’s precision oncology platform to transform future cancer treatments.

SEngine and Oncodesign have initiated a joint research collaboration to evaluate the feasibility to convert the already identified Nanocyclix® inhibitor series into drug candidates that are likely to be effective in the clinic. During this initial phase, both companies will combine their respective technology platforms to advance the program. SEngine will provide research funding to Oncodesign for the initial optimization of the compound series up to a predefined level. It is anticipated that this initial phase will be followed by a larger research collaboration with an option to license at a more advanced stage.

Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, CEO and co-founder of SEngine, stated: “I am thrilled to expand our collaboration with Oncodesign, now that their candidate kinase inhibitors have shown efficacy against a panel of patient-derived organoids for specific solid tumors. It is a new era for drug development, where drugs are pre-tested on mini-cancers grown in 3D shortly after ex vivo derivation, a significant improvement over the historical use of established cell-line models. SEngine’s PARIS® Test is highly predictive of in vivo drug response and allows us to bring novel therapeutics towards clinical evaluation with higher chances of success.”

Philippe Genne, CEO and founder of Oncodesign, said: “This collaboration with SEngine goes right to the heart of our company’s mission: finding novel treatments for cancer patients that have no remaining solutions. We already are working on target identification with Oncosnipe® and our IA Business Unit and partnering with SEngine widens our horizon as the combination of Nanocyclix® and the PARIS® Test, two important technologies for personalized cancer treatment discovery, opens the door for a highly innovative way of discovering effective new cancer treatments, starting from biological material directly derived from patients.”

Jan Hoflack, CSO of Oncodesign, added: “The results already obtained with our Nanocyclix® probes in patient derived live cellular cancer organoids has generated high enthusiasm at both Oncodesign and SEngine. Combining our forces has the potential to dramatically change lives of patients with advanced, metastatic and uncurable cancers of multiple types and origin. Our teams have already started working to come to clinical candidate molecules.”

About PARIS® Test

The PARIS® Test is a next generation diagnostic test that predicts drug responses by pre-screening a broad panel of cancer drugs in patient-derived live tumor cells using robotics and AI-driven computational tools.
SEngine’s CLIA certified PARIS® Test generates actionable drug sensitivity reports for patients and is applicable to all solid tumors including colon, breast, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Cancer derived cells grown in 3D outside the body maintain the functionality of the original tumor as well as its genomic characteristics. For cancers where a treatment path is not clear, such as many metastatic and recurrent cancers, the PARIS® Test provides crucial information to treating physicians to match the right drug to the right patient.
Learn more: https://senginemedicine.com/paris-test.

About SEngine Precision Medicine

SEngine Precision Medicine Inc. is a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer therapies by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived 3D cultures utilizing patient specific tumor cells. As a spin-out from the world-renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, SEngine is leveraging over two decades of R&D in diagnostics and drug discovery. The Company is commercializing the PARIS® Test, a next generation diagnostic test that predicts drug responses integrating knowledge of cancer genomics with phenotypic testing of patient-derived live cells combined with robotics and AI-driven computational tools. SEngine’s CLIA ^[1] certified PARIS® Test generates actionable drug sensitivity reports for patients with solid tumors. SEngine is also pursuing drug discovery via strategic collaborations with biopharmaceutical / pharmaceutical companies by deploying its precision oncology platform.
Visit our website: https://senginemedicine.com/

[1]Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments

About Oncodesign

 Oncodesign is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to precision medicine, founded in 1995 by its current CEO and majority shareholder, and has been listed on Euronext Growth Market since April 2014. Its mission is the discovery of effective therapies to fight cancer and other diseases without therapeutic solutions. With its unique experience acquired by working with more than 1 000 clients, including the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, along with its unique technological platform combining Artificial Intelligence, state-of-the-art medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, regulated bioanalysis, medical imaging, Oncodesign is able to select new therapeutic targets, design and develop potential preclinical candidates through to clinical phases. Oncodesign has configured its organization to offer innovative services to its customers and to license its proprietary molecules. Applied to kinase inhibitors, which represent a market estimated at over $65 billion by 2027 and accounting for almost 25% of the pharmaceutical industry’s R&D expenditure, Oncodesign’s technology has already enabled the targeting of several promising molecules with substantial therapeutic potential, in oncology and elsewhere, along with partnerships with global pharmaceutical groups. Oncodesign is based in Dijon, France, in the heart of the town’s university and hospital hub, and within the Paris-Saclay cluster. Oncodesign has 233 employees within 3 Business Units (BU): Service, Biotech, Artificial Intelligence and subsidiaries in Canada and the USA.

Contacts Press

SEngine | Renee Volpini | Media Relations
Tel.: 917-923-8117

Oncodesign | Philippe Genne | CEO
Tel. : +33 (0)380 788 260

NewCap | Investor Relations | Mathilde Bohin
Tel. : +33 (0)144 719 495

NewCap | Media Relations | Arthur Rouillé
Tel. : +33 (0)144 710 015

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