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In return for the licenses, Astex will receive 19% of Mosaic Therapeutics’ equity, with a further 3% to follow if milestones are hit.\n Mosaic Therapeutics has secured the latest pieces in its combination medicine strategy by licensing two clinical stage tumor drugs from fellow British biotech Astex Pharmaceuticals.The small molecules in question are ASTX029, an ERK1/2 inhibitor that has completed a phase 2 study, and ASTX295 an MDM2 antagonist that has undergone a phase 1 trial. Both candidates have demonstrated “single-agent activity as monotherapies, enabling use in combination therapies,” Mosaic explained in an April 24 release.In return for the licenses, Astex—which is owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical—will receive 19% of Mosaic’s equity, with a further 3% to follow if milestones are hit.Cambridge, U.K.-based Mosaic secured a $28 million series A two years ago to fund its ambition to “resolve cancer’s complexity to power new treatments for patients.” In practice, this means combing through large datasets to identify combinations of oncology drugs that could increase their effectiveness in biomarker-defined patient populations.This morning’s deal “significantly accelerates Mosaic’s development path,” the biotech\'s chair Edward Hodgkin said in the April 24 release, meaning the company now expects to launch its first clinical study of a combination treatment next year. “The in-licensing of these two clinical stage assets provides a step change in our development pipeline, allowing Mosaic to progress targeted drug combinations in novel biomarker-defined settings and enabling the delivery of precision medicines for patients who currently have few therapeutic options,” added Hodgkin, who is also managing partner of Mosaic’s backer Syncona Investment Management.Astex, which like Mosaic is based in Cambridge in England, has a strong track record of working with Big Pharma in the past, including collaborating with the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research on breast cancer med Kisqali and AstraZeneca on its breast cancer treatment Truqap in the mid-2000s. More recently, the biotech secured a 2023 deal with Merck & Co.“We recognise the significance of Mosaic’s platform, which has identified these two assets as anchor components of a pipeline of potential combination products,” Astex’s CEO and co-founder Harren Jhoti, Ph.D., said in the release. “Both drug targets are well-characterised drivers of many cancers, and we are excited to be working with the experienced team at Mosaic to expand the Company’s pipeline in combination therapies with high unmet medical need.”

CAMBRIDGE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mosaic Therapeutics, Ltd (‘Mosaic’, or ‘the Company’) a targeted oncology therapeutics company dedicated to resolving cancer’s complexity with new combination therapies for patients, today announces the in-licensing of two clinical-stage oncology programs from Astex Pharmaceuticals (‘Astex’), a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Mosaic has identified proprietary combinations incorporating the licensed products and their targets and this agreement gives Mosaic the exclusive rights to develop those combination products for patients for whom there are no, or limited, treatment options. As part of the agreement, Astex has taken an equity stake in Mosaic equating to a fully-diluted ownership stake of 19% equity upfront and a further 3% dependent on clinical milestones, which will consolidate the partnership between these two innovation-driven businesses. Astex will also receive potential future revenue shares. Dr. Harren Jhoti, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Astex, will also take an observer role on the Mosaic Board. Other financial details have not been disclosed. Mosaic’s platform identifies combinations of pairs of oncology drugs predicted to have synergistic activity in biomarker-defined patient populations and expected to lead to greater efficacy and durability of response than achieved as monotherapy. The development strategy for each combination product is to seek a broad, biomarker-defined label across multiple tumour types. The two small molecule assets from Astex are ASTX029, an ERK1/2 inhibitor discovered by Astex that has completed a Phase 2 clinical study and ASTX295 an MDM2 antagonist discovered by Astex in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University, that has completed a Phase 1 clinical study. Each of the two licensed compounds has been studied in more than 100 patients and demonstrated differentiated safety profiles within their target class and single-agent activity as monotherapies, enabling use in combination therapies. “Mosaic’s mission is to bring novel targeted combination medicines to patients who need them,” said Dr. Edward Hodgkin, Managing Partner of Syncona Investment Management Limited and Chair of Mosaic. “The in licensing of these two clinical-stage assets provides a step change in our development pipeline, allowing Mosaic to progress targeted drug combinations in novel biomarker-defined settings and enabling the delivery of precision medicines for patients who currently have few therapeutic options. Excitingly the deal significantly accelerates Mosaic’s development path, with the first clinical combination study expected to commence in 2026.” “We recognise the significance of Mosaic’s platform, which has identified these two assets as anchor components of a pipeline of potential combination products,” said Dr. Harren Jhoti, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Astex. “Both drug targets are well-characterised drivers of many cancers, and we are excited to be working with the experienced team at Mosaic to expand the Company’s pipeline in combination therapies with high unmet medical need.”