Context Therapeutics Inc. and Lonza, announced that the companies are collaborating to manufacture CTIM-76, Context's clinical development candidate. CTIM-76 is a Claudin 6 (CLDN6) x CD3 T-cell engaging bispecific antibody targeting CLDN6 positive tumors. Under the terms of the agreement, Lonza will provide manufacturability assessment, gene and cell line construction, and process development.

The drug substance will be manufactured at Lonza's Slough (UK) site, and the drug product will be manufactured at the Stein and Visp (CH) sites. Context will leverage Lonza's expertise in developing and manufacturing complex proteins, as well as the extensive regulatory competence and manufacturing network. Claudin 6 (CLDN6) is differentially expressed on cancer cells with no or very low expression in normal, healthy tissue.

CLDN6-enriched cancers include ovarian, endometrial, testicular, and gastric, among others. With the potential to reach a large patient population and selective expression on cancer cells, CLDN6 has emerged as an important drug target. CTIM-76 is a CLDN6 and CD3 bispecific antibody currently in preclinical development that is capable of binding to tumor cells expressing CLDN6 and stimulating intra-tumoral T cells by the CD3 arm that is designed to be activated only upon tumor engagement while silent elsewhere.

CLDN6 is expressed on multiple solid tumors such as ovarian cancer, sarcoma, testicular cancer, endometrial cancer, and gastric cancer. Preclinical studies of CTIM-76 show it effectively maintains a strong tumor binding property and anti-tumor activity attributable to a synergistic effect of both CLDN6 antibody and CD3 antibody while avoiding systemic immunotoxicity commonly seen with CD3 antibodies as a drug class. CTIM-76 has the potential for convenient dosing and scalable manufacturing to address the significant number of patients who are potentially eligible for CTIM-76 therapy.